Transformers: Virtual Legacy
by Cydra
Summary: After the Fallen's defeat and the destruction of the solar harvester, life seems to go on normally on Earth. However, someone is searching for an ancient evil in order to awaken it and the clues to finding it lie in both the supercomputer and in Aelita.
1. Awakening of Swords

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

_Optimus Prime: Before the loss of the Allspark…_

_Alpha Trion: Before the fall of The Fallen…_

_Optimus Prime: And before the fires of war, there were the Monstercons._

_Alpha Trion: Four beings who came to Cybertron from the stars and began to ravage our beloved planet._

_Optimus Prime: Beings different to Cybertronians yet more powerful and also more unstable._

_Alpha Trion: Their power, tremendous…_

_Optimus Prime: Their forms, horrific…_

_Alpha Trion: And their hunger, insatiable._

_Optimus Prime: Finally, one day, several great Transformers captured the Monstercons and sealed them inside of a crystal tomb, using the Allspark as a key to lock them away for eternity._

_Alpha Trion: For ages, the terror of the Monstercons had diminished, dismissed as nightmares for the youth of young protoforms._

_Optimus Prime: And now, with the Cube sent into space at the beginning of the war, we had hoped that its secrets as well as the Monstercons would vanish with it. And yet even with the Cube's destruction, our fears still remain._

_Alpha Trion: The fate of Earth and now Cybertron rests in the hands of one tiny girl._

_Optimus Prime: But her fate is now in the hands of others. This is the story…_

**Book 1: Earth**

**Chapter 1: Awakening of Swords**

Earth was never quite the same after the revelation that there beings from another planet living besides them on Earth. And not just any kind of space aliens, not the expected Grays or BEMs, but giant robots capable of disguising themselves as Earth vehicles or other pieces of technology.

And to make matters even more confusing, there were two factions to them, one side was supposedly the benevolent peace-wishing ones who wish to co-exist with the humans and the other side seeks the destruction/conquest of the other sides and the human race. Not to mention the fact that the 'bad guys', known as the Decepticons, had nearly twice taken over the planet, the last time revealing themselves to the public and almost destroying the sun. However, the 'good guys', known as the Autobots, managed to counter their attempts and managed to kill several Decepticons, including their apparent leader, The Fallen.

Now that these aliens, known colloquially as the Transformers for the ability to transform into vehicle modes, are now common knowledge, the people of Earth have been somewhat unnerved by the thought that a machine they could be looking at could really be a being from a distant planet, possibly with the intention of the extermination of humanity. Of course, there was one small group who more used to hostile machines than you would expect.

A few years before the main Autobot force arrive on Earth in search of the Allspark, the Earth had already been threatened by mechanical domination, but not from the Decepticons. An artificial intelligence named XANA had plotted to rule over humanity from its virtual world. However, a group of teenagers was able to foil its plans and destroy him. The supercomputer which allowed it access to the real world had been shut down to make sure no more trouble came from it. That was six years ago and the group had moved in different ways since then, but not totally separated.

The whole thing started so innocently, with a simple flier. There were several taped to the walls at the university telling of how the Museum of French History was having a special exhibit opening this weekend. They were going to show its collection of WWII era artifacts, from propaganda on both sides, preserved uniforms of French soldiers and officers, but the biggest exhibit would a collection of tanks that were used during the war. The fliers certainly attracted the attention from the students, including a young woman who somehow had naturally pink hair. She took one flier from the wall and studied it closely. "Hmm… this looks interesting. I should show this to Jeremie," said Aelita.

Aelita carried the paper with her over to the dorms. Going to the boys' section, she quickly found her way to her boyfriend's dorm. After knocking, she came in. Jeremie, as usual, was working on his computer. Aelita rolled her eyes. It's virtually the same as back when they were at Kadic Academy. The only difference is that the sizeable amount of scholarships that Jeremie got had allowed to get a far more sophisticated computer, state-of-the-art and almost-unlimited access to the school's databases. Although, he kept his old Lyoko monitoring program, 'for old time's sake', he claimed.

"You know, most college kids put a bit more thought into their dorms' decorations," said Aelita, eyeing the Albert Einstein poster and the few photos taped on the walls.

"Well, most kids don't work so hard on their essays," said Jeremie, "Besides, you do know that most guys would have posters of barely-dressed girls on their walls and you don't want me having those, do you?"

"Not unless they're of me," said Aelita, giggling at the sight of Jeremie's face going bright pink. The two of them have been dating for about three years and Jeremie still bugged out at the thought of anything intimate regarding Aelita. Aelita found it cute, if somewhat frustrating. You'd think that Jeremie would have grown into it by now.

It's been six years since the supercomputer was shut down for good and Jeremie remained pretty much static in change. Ok, so he grew a head or two taller and was broader-shouldered, but his personality's pretty much the same since then: intellectual, quiet, and irritatingly nervous. His taste in clothing didn't change much either. He was currently wearing a white t-shirt with thin blue vertical stripes, cargo pants, and sneakers. He still wore round glasses even though he could have afforded to have correction surgery with some of the scholarship money he gained. He refused to do so because of the potential hazard of surgery and 'the glasses make me look wiser'. Not to mention contacts irritated his eyes.

Aelita, on the other hand, was more outgoing. Without XANA to worry about, she was able to move on with her life. Her reputation as a DJ had grown to the point where she was now being booked to provide music for several parties, particularly college parties. However, she still had enough intelligence to stay in the same league of Jeremie, which gave nearly as many scholarships as he had plus some money saved from her DJ bookings. Her choice of clothing had changed to reflect this. She was wearing a pink tank top, a short jeans skirt, and white shoes with matching socks that went all the way up to her knees. Her clothing did well to show off her well-proportioned body that she developed over the years. She wasn't true supermodel material (that'd be Yumi's territory), but it was enough to make guys turn heads if she weren't attached to Jeremie.

"Anyhow," said Aelita, "You hear about the exhibit going on at the Museum of French History?"

"Some of it," said Jeremie, "Sounds kind of interesting."

"Don't you want to go check it out?" asked Aelita.

"I would, but I've got that paper I need to do for Computer Programming," said Jeremie, "Then I have to get to work on the homework for Biology III and-"

"Jeremie, you could do that paper on computer programs in your sleep," said Aelita, "and that biology homework's not due until next week. You need to slow down before you burn yourself out."

Jeremie straightened his glasses and said, "Aelita, the chances of me 'burning myself out' are 342.6601…"

"Yes, yes, I heard you give the statistics before, but numbers don't cover everything," said Aelita, "C'mon, it'll be a great chance to meet up with the others. You know Yumi would want to see those tanks and Odd will probably want to look at the propaganda art. C'mon, do it for little old me." She rubbed Jeremie's shoulders as she spoke, effectively making him putty in her hands.

"Oh, alright," said Jeremie, "I suppose no harm can come from it."

"Great, I'll call the others and tell them to meet us there in 2 hours," said Aelita.

"What? 2 hours? But Aelita, I-" started Jeremie before the door closed on him. Jeremie sighed and said to himself, "How do I always get into these things?"

The Museum of French History has always been a popular tourist attraction. The current exhibit on WWII artifacts proved to attract even more patrons. It wasn't too hard for Jeremie and Aelita to get there, seeing how their university was in the same city. They were currently waiting for the others to arrive, which should be any minute now.

"We could have come another day," said Jeremie, "It was a bit last moment."

"Oh, Jeremie, relax," said Aelita, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Jeremie would have automatically brought up XANA until he reminded himself that the AI had been deleted for years now. Aelita was right, he need to learn to relax. He didn't want to have grey hairs before he finished college.

"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Einstein!" Jeremie and Aelita turned to see their old friend Odd coming towards them. Odd had been attending the art academy, a position he was able to get through his artistic skills attracting a talent agent. Odd's metabolism was still the same, which accounted for his still 'svelte' build and relative shortness, but it was hard to pick out with the clothes he wore. He claimed to 'model' in his spare time, which was why his clothes were always in the latest fashion, all keeping with his 'purple theme' of course.

"Odd, I thought you wouldn't be able to make it," said Aelita.

"Fortunately, I was able to convince my teacher to allow me to skip his lecture if I did a paper on the propaganda art on display here," said Odd, "Not that it's any great loss to me. Who could have thought that art could be so boring?"

"You'd do well to try to listen," said Jeremie, "High art is more complicated than those doodles you do of Kiwi."

"Oh, ha, ha," said Odd sarcastically, "I'm a squire among knights now. You'll so regret that joke when I'm a world famous master."

"Master of what? All-you-can-eat-buffets?" asked Jeremie.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the funny one, you're the brainy computer guy," said Odd.

"Oh don't worry about me taking your title," said Jeremie, "I always leave the clowning to the professionals."

"That's right, and I'm a professional at- HEY!"

This small debacle was put to a halt by the last members of the group arriving. "You just can't your foot out of your mouth, can you?" said Ulrich as he and Yumi walked up to them.

"Finally, the lovebirds are here," said Odd, "What did you two do? Flap your way here?"

"There aren't that many parking spaces left," said Yumi, "We had to drive around for 10 minutes before we can find a place to stop."

"Yeah, yeah," said Odd, "Just keep the smooching to a minimum around me, ok? A digestive system can only hold so much mush."

Odd's remark may have been an exaggeration, but it had a rather strong point. Ulrich and Yumi had started going out a few days after the supercomputer's shutdown and have been together ever since. The two of them were currently attending the same college outside of town. Everyone considered the two of them a perfect match, particularly since they were the most attractive couple in school. Puberty had done them both great justice, with Ulrich becoming muscular, ruggedly handsome and now a few inches taller than Yumi. Yumi had easily blossomed into one of the sexiest girls around and had to cover it up to keep the boys at bay sometimes. Her current outfit was a black t-shirt with kanji across the chest, a pair of dark jeans and boots. Ulrich was wearing a green muscle shirt along with dark jeans and tennis shoes.

"Must you exaggerate everything, Ladiesman217?" asked Ulrich.

"You know that's not my username online," said Odd, "Frankly, I don't know where you got that silly idea in the first place."

"Can we go inside now?" asked Aelita.

"Sure," said Yumi, "I've wanted to check out the tank exhibit ever since I've heard about it."

Just as they were about to head inside, Odd pointed and said, "Cool, look at that." The others turned to see a white sports car of some kind zoom down the street. It had some kind of red inscription on the side, but it was already gone before they saw what it was.

"What kind of car was that?" asked Aelita.

"Looks like a drifting car of some type," said Yumi.  
"Drift?" asked Jeremie.

"It's a kind of racing they do in Japan," said Yumi, "The main gimmick is to have the tires skid as often as possible for sharp turns. Hiroki's gotten hooked on it lately. But what's one doing here?"

"Maybe someone just got a fancy foreign car and they're showing it off," said Odd, "It's long gone, anyways. Let's head on in."

As the group walked into the building and paid for admission, they looked around to see other exhibits listed on banners, such as the Napoleon Bonaparte exhibit or the Hall of Famous French Scientists that included famous figures in science such as Louis Pasteur. Of course, there were quite few banners regarding the WWII exhibits.

"Ok, we're going to go check out the tanks now," said Ulrich, wrapping his arm around Yumi's shoulder.

"Kay, I'm gonna go to the propaganda stuff," said Odd.

"We'll look at the uniforms," said Aelita, holding Jeremie's hand.

"Ok, we'll meet back in half an hour," said Yumi.

The group separated to see the different museum exhibits. As Ulrich and Yumi were heading towards the courtyard were the tanks were kept, they thought they heard familiar voices up ahead.

"Trust me kid, you haven't seen anything thing as bad as 'Nam. If that shrapnel mines don't get ya, the spiky booby traps were. Lost a fair few comrades that way."

"Whoa, I didn't know you saw that much action."

"Well, it's not something I talk about much. Battle scars in the mind last longer than on the body. You need to think twice before charging out into a fight."

"I'm well aware of the lesson now. Had to learn that the hard way. Er, with my training, that is. Kept messing up before I go before hearing all the instructions."

Yumi and Ulrich turned the corner to see a rather surprising sight. Just near the door leading to the courtyard was a pair that they haven't seen for a long time. First was their old gym teacher, Jim Morales, rather unchanged after their graduating Kadic. The other was a bigger shock. William took his enslavement to XANA pretty hard. After being permanently rid of him, William decided to straighten up and learn real discipline, joining the armed service after graduating. Which would explain his short-trimmed hair, his dark combat fatigues shirt, and cargo pants with matching army boots. William was the same height as Ulrich and his muscle build was slightly bigger.

The two of them looked up as Yumi and Ulrich came towards them. "Stern, Ishiyama, fancy running into you here," said Jim.

"Same could be said for you two, what are you doing here?" asked Ulrich.

"Paying my respects," said Jim, "Had a couple of family members who did some service in WWII. It helped motivate me to go to 'Nam."

"You were in Vietnam?" asked Yumi.

"I'd rather not talk about it, twice," said Jim.

"Well, me, I, uh, wanted to see what fighting was like back then," said William nervously. The gang had ultimately forgave William for what he did as XANA's puppet, seeing as he wasn't controlling himself at the time, but the atmosphere always got awkward whenever he was near them.

"Well, I kinda wanted to see the tanks that were used back then as well," said Yumi.

"Ah, those old clunkers, not nearly as bad as the death machines used now. Particularly the ones that fire at all sides," said Jim.

"Jim, there can't be that many Decepticon tanks," said Ulrich.

"That's what they want you to think," said Jim, "But then again, no telling what those things could look like when they're hiding."

"Well, we'll keep an eye out for them," said Yumi as they headed on to the courtyard.

The collection of WWII Japanese tanks was rather impressive. There were about two dozen different types there, several with battle scars caused by bullets or small explosives. Jim did have a point about the tanks. They were a lot clunkier than the German tanks. Of course, the Japanese were mainly doing aerial and naval combat with the Allied forces. The old tanks were somewhat ungainly, though still deadly on the battlefield.

"How do they bring them all over here?" asked William.  
"Cargo ships and trucks, I bet," said Ulrich, "I'm frankly surprised that there's some tanks left to show in museums."

However, one tank had caught Yumi's interest. Its design was a lot more elegant than the other tanks, with a more-more centered turret as well as a machine and missile launchers mounted on it. It was still Japanese style, but looked more advanced than the others. "You know, this one looks really familiar for some reason," said Yumi.

William looked at it and said, "That's a Type 90, they're the ones being used in Japan right now."

"That's odd," said Ulrich, "Why would they have a modern tank among these antique ones."

"Maybe to compare the past and the present," said William.

"I'm gonna see if there's a plaque about it," said Yumi. She walked to the tank and looked around it. The other tanks had small plaques that described their built, armaments, and use. However, the Type 90 didn't have anything around it and was noticeably set farther away from the others. Yumi also noticed how the tank seemed to be built so smoothly. There were only a few rivets on the panels to keep them on, which seemed really unusual. Yumi got closer to find any plague being hung on the tank. The sides of it were bare until she stopped at the front right side. There was no plague hanging on the tank there, but she did see a symbol branded on the tank, one that looked like an angular robotic face that ganged a large amount of notoriousness recently.

"Oh crap," she muttered and ran back towards the two guys. As she was running, the tank's turret moved to follow her. The machine gun focused angled itself until it had a clear shot on her back. Fortunately for Yumi, she had already reached Ulrich and William before that. "GET DOWN!" she yelled before throwing herself forwards onto them, knocking them both down as a small hail of machine gunfire shot over them.

"What was that?" asked Ulrich.

"Machine gun, from the Type 90," said William, "Somebody's setting off the tank's weapons."

"No, not just somebody," said Yumi.

Ulrich's face paled a little, "You don't mean XANA, do you?"

"No, the tank shot at us," said Yumi.

"The tank? How?" asked William.

"It's not really a tank, it's a Decepticon!" said Yumi.

"Decepticon?" asked Ulrich.

Before he could inquire further, a grinding sound caught their attention. They turned to see the Type 90 rolling towards them, its missile launchers aiming right at them. "Run for the streets!" cried William, "It'll just blast through the walls if we go back inside!" The three of them got up and ran for it as the tank started firing missiles at them, fortunately missing.

The gunfire and explosions was easily heard by the museum patrons who were quickly evacuating the building. The only ones not caught up in the stampede were Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd, who were looking for Ulrich and Yumi.

"Where could they be?" asked Aelita.

"Hopefully nowhere near those explosions," said Odd.

"The tank courtyard's on the other side of the building," said Jeremie, "Let's check over there."

The trio ran to the corner and started around it. However, they were abruptly met by the duo they were looking for. "Guys, we need to move!" said Ulrich.

"What happened over there?" asked Aelita.

"And what's he doing here?" asked Odd, looking at William.

"No time to explain," said William, "There's a Decepticon-" William's sentence finished itself as the Type 90 tank burst through the fence and onto the street.

"Ok, this is a problem," said Jeremie.

The tank rolled towards them before stopping a few feet away. The six of them were about to relax when a clicking noise was heard from the tank. The panels on the base of the tank started folding apart and onto themselves. The treads unwound and bent as the wheels holding them segmented. Everything but the front part of the tank's base unfolded out into a pair of legs which stood up while the front part separated to form arms and shoulders. In mere moments, the tank had transformed into a 25 foot robot that looked like it was wearing orange and black samurai armor. The outer hull of the tank formed part of the armor while the treads hanged like small banners. The unnerving part about this robot was that some of the 'gaps' of its armor showed paler, thinner metal, almost like bone. Its head wasn't much better, looking like a skull with red eyes and wearing a samurai's helmet.

"You know, I really hate tattletales," said the Decepticon, "You've completely blown the cover I was trying to maintain, which wasn't easy in the first place. Now I'm going to have to relocate. But first, I'll have the pleasure of exterminating you." The samurai tank lifted up a foot and brought it down towards them. The gang immediately scattered before it could land. This didn't deter the Decepticon as it continued to try to smash the teens into messy puddles on the concrete.

Aelita managed to get away from the Decepticon and started running down the street. This wasn't a XANA attack so there wasn't much they could do and going to the factory wouldn't help. She needed to go find the proper authorities before it manages to kill anyone.

However, a roaring engine got her attention. She looked ahead to see the Japanese sports car from before driving up the road towards them. It wasn't slowing down in the slightest. She would have thought that the driver didn't notice the Decepticon, which was extremely unlikely, if it wasn't barreling right towards it. But then she noticed that the driver was flickering like a bad image before completely disappearing. There was no one driving the car.

As the car was getting closer to the Decepticon, it somehow jumped up into the air. It looked like it was about to ram it when it started to change. The back part flipped into legs, doors swung to the sides, the hood split to form arms, leaving a mostly white robot to deliver a flying kick to the Decepticon's chest. The Decepticon was knocked back onto its backside as the Autobot, as identified by the insignias on his shoulders, landed neatly on his feet. The Autobot also looked a bit like a samurai, only he was less scary than the Decepticon and smaller, but he still looked like a skilled opponent.

"Stomping on Earthlings now, Bludgeon?" said the Autobot, "I thought you had more honor than that."

The samurai tank got to his feet and said, "You're not one to talk about honor, Deadlock."

The Autobot glared and said, "My name is Drift now."

"Deadlock or Drift, it makes no difference," said Bludgeon as he pulled out a short sword from his side, "It only changes the look on your gravestone." With that, Bludgeon charged at Drift, crying some Cybertronian battle cry. Drift pulled out a pair of short swords from the doors hanging from his waist and brought them to block Bludgeon's blow. The two samurai bots then started fighting, sparks flying from where their blades struck each other. They were both masters at their craft, few strikes on either side managing to get home.

The gang managed to get off the street and was now watching the two giant samurai robots fight each other. "If wasn't just in danger right now, this would totally awesome," said Odd.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," said Ulrich, "So do we just watch now?"

"Not much we can do, is there?" said Yumi, who was particularly interested in the bots that were fighting. They both seemed to be employing styles of Japanese sword-fighting, not to mention their Japanese vehicle modes and samurai armor was extremely fascinating to her.

The two Transformers paused for a few moments in their fight. "Your skill has not grown dull, Deadlock," said Bludgeon.

"Nor has yours," said Drift.

"Of course, you have the advantage of your two swords to my one. How about we fight like real warriors?" said Bludgeon. The turret on his back, which was left unchanged by his transformation, suddenly split partially and opened up. Bludgeon sheathed his short sword in a socket before rotating the turret out to the side. He grabbed the end of his cannon and pulled, drawing out a long sword which he gripped both hands around.

"I was wondering when you'd move up to that," said Drift before sheathing his short swords and pulling out the long sword that had been fastened to his back. The two of them let out war-cries before charging at each other again. The two swords clanged against each other, casting sparks everywhere.

"Cool, alien katanas," said Odd.

"Bludgeon's not using a katana, he's using an odachi," said Yumi. The other stared at her. "It's too long to be a katana," explained Yumi.

"I just hope that Drift wins," said William, "I'd hate to have Bludgeon came after us again."

The two Transformers kept banging at each other, their swords causing cuts and dents in each other's armor. Just then, Bludgeon managed to score a deep gash in Drift's right shoulder, causing Drift to wince and lose strength in his right arm. With another blow, Bludgeon knocked the sword out of Drift's hands. "You won't be needing that anymore," said Bludgeon.

"You wouldn't cut down a disarmed opponent," said Drift, "Even you wouldn't sink that low."

"Maybe," said Bludgeon as he flipped his sword around so that the cannon hilt pointed at Drift, "But my high-voltage electric cannon can get rid of you far more efficiently." The cannon hilt started to hum as it warmed up and the end started to glow.

"A high-voltage electric cannon? Isn't that dishonorable for a 'master' of Metallikato?" asked Drift.

"I'm a Decepticon," reminded Bludgeon before he got ready to fire.

However, as Bludgeon prepared to finish off his opponent, something stirred inside Aelita. It was like some sort of thunderstorm was forming inside her, lightning crackling within. The lightning seemed to crackle up her arms as she involuntarily lifted them forwards. When Bludgeon fired a bolt of lightning from his cannon, Aelita felt a ball of light in her chest flare as her hands glowed pink. The lightning bolt abruptly stopped inches from Drift, suspended in midair.

The two Transformers started in disbelief at this defiance of the laws of normal science. "What in the name of the Allspark…" started Bludgeon. But then Aelita's fingers twitched and the lightning bolt was thrown back from where it came. It struck Bludgeon in the chest, near his spark chamber. The Decepticon jittered and shook as his body was overloaded with electricity, crackling all over with surplus energy. Eventually, the sparks died down and Bludgeon fell over onto his back, his optics dimmed.

Drift cautiously approached Bludgeon. He pulled out one of his smaller swords and prodded the Decepticon. When he made no response, Bludgeon sheathed his sword before walking around him. The gang slowly approached the fallen tank. "Is he dead?" asked Jeremie.

"No, but he's been knocked into stasis lock," said Drift, "That should keep him quiet until we transport him to the Decepticon Detention Center. But there are two things that puzzle me."

"How his shot turned back on him? We don't know either," said Jeremie, who was lying a bit. The others had seen Aelita turn it back on Bludgeon, but they had no idea how she could have done that.

"I wouldn't expect you to know," said Drift, "But there's the question of what Bludgeon was doing here in the first place. I know Bludgeon too well. He wouldn't risk exposing himself by hiding himself in a museum exhibit for little reason besides hiding from NEST. He was here for a reason, but what?" Drift shook his head and said, "Well, you civilians better leave now. There will be a cleanup operation here soon now and you don't want to get involved. Besides, there's no telling if there's another 'Con around here."

"Right, uh, sir," said Jeremie, "We'll be going right away." The six of them started walking away from the small battlefield. Once they were sure they were out of hearing range, Jeremie turned to Aelita and said, "How did you do that?"

"I don't know," said Aelita, "I just saw that Decepticon trying to blast the Autobot and… I went by instinct I guess."

"Most humans would have 'instinctually' ran away rather than watch," pointed out Yumi.

"Not to mention it's not normal for humans to be bending electricity with their minds," said Ulrich.

"Unless, you're not a psychic by any chance, are you?" asked Odd.

"Hardly," said Aelita, "I have strange dreams, but they're more flashbacks than anything else. That was the first time anything like that's ever happened to me in the real world, at least when I'm not teleported to Earth."

"We're gonna have to keep a sharp eye out then," said William, "Drift may be right. There could be more than one Decepticon hiding in the city."

"Don't you have to report back to your colonel or whatever?" said Ulrich.

"Not really, I'm off-duty," said William, "I've got the next month off and I'm not in any rush to get into anymore mechanical trouble more complex than a malfunctioning printer."

"I wish it could just stay that way," said Jeremie. Of course, he knew better than that. Whatever was going on had only just begun.

However, while Drift was waiting for NEST to arrive to pick up Bludgeon, he activated his comlink. "Sideswipe, I need some help."

The other side of the comlink immediately responded, "You need help taking down that Decepticon?"

"No, Bludgeon's been dealt with," said Drift, "But I encountered some human adolescents that were rather intriguing. I want you to run a background check on them."

The voice on the other end sounded visibly annoyed, "I'm a warrior, not a data filer, ask one of the intelligence agents for looking up your new friends."

"It's not that," said Drift, "There was something unusual about them. For one thing, they weren't nearly as scared as most humans would be in the presence of Decepticons, particularly since Bludgeon was chasing them specifically. That tells that they've had encounters with Cybertronians before or something similar. Another is that one of the females had pink hair, which is apparently an oddity among their species."

Sideswipe scoffed and said, "Some humans just don't know what to fear properly. And they probably indulge in changing paint jobs like some of us. Not much to be worth looking up."

"No? Well here's something that is," said Drift, "Bludgeon fired his electric cannon at me."

"What? I thought he wouldn't stoop to that. Do you require repairs?"

"No, I'm fine, and that's the strange part. The charge just stopped in midair and turned back on Bludgeon for no apparent reason. I don't know if those humans were involved, but we need to make double-sure. One of them was apparently in the military. Look through the enlisted soldiers who live around here first and see if you can find anyone. I'll confirm for any matches and we can search for links from there."

"Hmm… well, when you put It that way," said Sideswipe, "I'll see what I can do, wait for NEST to arrive and pick up Bludgeon first."

"That's what I'm doing, Drift out," said Drift before closing his comlink. He glanced down at Bludgeon's paralyzed body and said, "What were you after here?" Bludgeon probably wouldn't have told Drift, even if he could move.

Meanwhile, high above Paris, a black flying wing drone was soaring among the clouds. Of course, some people would find this rather out of place since there wasn't anything of particular military significance to observe about the city. But if one were to see the twin insignias on the 'drone's' wings, they'd be able to understand what it was doing. As the drone scanned over the area near the Museum of French History, it sent out a transmission:

"Location scanned, Bludgeon defeated, female organic possible carrier. Conclusion: report to Mindwipe."

With that, the drone quickly took up altitude as it soared far away from the city, or even the whole continent.

At the same time, though hardly by coincidence, a pair of men in black suits was watching from their parked black Jaguar. They had observed the fight between the two Cybertronians as well as the strange conclusion. Though the fallen Decepticon was worth investigating, their attention was focused on the pink-haired young woman seen leaving with her friends. The man in the driver's seat turned to his partner and said, "Could it be her?"

The other man in the passenger's seat flipped over a manila folder on his lap and looked through its contents, particularly that of a photo of a man with grey hair, beard, and glasses, a woman with long pink hair, and the little girl who also had pink hair. The picture was apparently taken during the winter near a rustic house out in the middle of the woods. "It could be," said the man in the passenger's seat, "She ought to be older, but we know people can be held in stasis."

The man in the driver's seat nodded and pulled out his cell phone. He hit the speed-dial button and waited for a few seconds before saying into it, "Sir, we believe we've found the daughter." A couple of seconds later, the man said, "Understood, we'll keep constant vigilance. We're not letting her slip away again." He then hung and started up the car. The black Jaguar drove down the street and away from the site of the Cybertronian duel.

* * *

Here's the first chapter of my new Transformers story, which is also a crossover of Code Lyoko. As you can tell, it takes place a few years after the end of Code Lyoko so the kids have grown older. It also takes place after Revenge of the Fallen.

This chapter was a little dry at first, mainly with having to re-introduce the gang as college kids, or, in the case of William, as soldiers. Anyhow, as you can clearly tell, this story is only beginning and it's going to get a lot more complex before it ends.

As for the Transformers who appeared in this chapter, you of course know Bludgeon, based off his ROTF-line toy. If you kept tabs on the same toyline, you'd know who the flying wing drone was too. Drift is a different case. He's supposed to be from G1 and is actually part of the Generations toyline. I nearly had Jolt take his place, but then I decided that Drift was a better opponent for Bludgeon, what with him also having a Japanese vehicle mode, a samurai motif, and swords. Another reason for this is that Lockdown has recently appeared in the Drift miniseries comic. And since variations of Lockdown have appeared in the Animated, movieverse, and G1 continuities, I don't see why it shouldn't also apply to Drift.

I hope to get the next chapter up soon, but until then, please review.


	2. Bolt from the Blue

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

**Book 1: Earth**

**Chapter 2: Bolt from the Blue**

_It was a small cottage in the middle of woods, shaded by mountains. Snow had fallen everywhere. A little girl with pink hair was playing in the snow. She rolled up a lot of snow into a large ball. "Look at my giant snowball, Mommy!" called the girl. She turned to look at her parents, a woman with pink hair like hers and a man with dark hair, a moustache, and glasses._

"_Stay near the house, darling!" called her mother._

"_Well done, my angel!" called her father. The girl giggled. Oh what fun she was having._

_But then she heard a wolf's howl. Now it didn't seem so fun anymore. She looked around and spotted a brown wolf, glaring at her with yellow eyes. Then she looked around again and saw two men in black suits dragging her mother away. "Aelita!" cried the woman._

"_Mommy!" cried the girl as she tried to run after them. But the men threw her mother into the back of a car. The woman pressed up against the back window and called, "Aelita!"_

"_Mommy! No!" cried the girl before she slipped and fell in the snow. The car quickly drove away, taking her mother away. The girl sat up and cried. But then she heard growling and turned to see the wolf again. The wolf snarled, its eyes flashing red as it got ready to pounce._

Aelita woke up with a start. She panted for a minute before realizing she was in her dorm. She was far away from that cottage in the woods. However, that old memory still shook her. She sighed to herself as she tried to calm down. She had tried so hard to put her past behind her, of her mother and father…

Aelita shuddered. She knew her father had died, sacrificed himself to destroy XANA. But she never found what happened to her mother, or who the men in black were. She had told herself she was better off not knowing, but she wasn't so sure.

"That old nightmare again?" asked Jeremie. Aelita wasn't going to keep a secret about it. She had told Jeremie as the two of them ate breakfast in Jeremie's.

"I know, I haven't had that one for years," said Aelita, "And the strange part is that it hasn't ever focused on the wolf that much. I don't know why I would have that dream now."

"It's probably a bit of shellshock," said Jeremie, "You did get a bit of fright yesterday, what with that big robot fight."

"I don't think I was scared," said Aelita, "It felt more like… enlightenment."

"Enlightenment?" asked Jeremie, "You mean you learned something?"

"No, not that I can think of," said Aelita, "Other than that Decepticons fight dirty when they can."

"Well maybe-" started Jeremie before his cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID. "It's Odd."

"Put him on speaker," said Aelita.

Jeremie clicked it on and Odd's voice came on. "Hey guys, is there a TV near you?"

"Yes, why?" asked Jeremie.

"Switch it to the news channel, quick!"

Aelita shrugged and switched on the TV. Jeremie mainly kept it on the Science Channel so he can keep up with the latest breakthroughs and discoveries, though it was useful for movie night.

The reason why Odd wanted them to watch became apparent the instant it came on. The big border at the bottom had the headline, Decepticon Attack at Museum. The rest of the screen showed the outside of the Museum of French History. The reporter onscreen was talking to the camera, "We are live here at the Museum of French History in Paris, France, which was the scene of a most alarming occurrence. Yesterday, approximately at 3:20, the Decepticon known as Bludgeon revealed itself and attacked a group of humans. The Decepticon was hiding as a Type 90 tank among the Japanese WWII tank collection. It is believe that the group attacked had exposed his cover by noticing that the tank did not belong there. Fortunately, Bludgeon was prevented from causing any harm to any humans by the Autobot Drift. Here is NEST Officer Graham to give more insight onto the occurrence."

The camera shifted to focus on a man in military fatigues and wearing a green beret, while keeping the reporter in view. Graham nodded his head and said, "Thank you, I hope we'll be able to clear up any confusion."

"Lieutenant Graham, you were a member of the Royal Marines before you transferred to NEST, correct?" asked the reporter.

"That's right," said Graham, "NEST was originally a US/Autobot unit, but since the increase of the Decepticon threat as well as a few…incidents in Britain which I am authorized to reveal, the United Kingdom joined NEST and soon after several other of the greater powers, such as Russia and Japan. My good marks on my performance record as well as my ability to rapidly jury-rig machines allowed me to be admitted into NEST forces, which is a great honor."

"Very fascinating," said the reporter, "So you can vouch for how the Autobots are an asset to humanity in general."

Graham cleared his throat and said, "Well, I'm not that great with words, so I'd more than likely mash up any speech I'd make. But I know the Autobots are here to help us, no doubt."

"So can you tell us what the Decepticon was doing in Paris of all places?" asked the reporter.

"Well, you have to understand that there' s only so much we can reveal to the public," said Graham, "Several Decepticons are adept at spying, particularly with hacking television signals. What I can say is that Decepticons and Autobots may be fully sentient, but they're still machines. They're not as prone to the sporadic, whimsical change of thought as we humans are. They don't act without a specific purpose in mind. Bludgeon was here for a reason. And it's more than likely that he didn't come alone."

"Do you have suspicions of where these Decepticons are and what they may be hiding as?" asked the reporter.

"I can specify on that," said Graham, "If they hear about how their disguises have been compromised, they may change them into something completely different, or worse, break free and become very hostile. We have Autobots in the city looking for them, and for security reasons, we can't reveal their identities either. However, I do have this to say: if you see any vehicle or electronic device that seems out of place or wasn't there before, do not approach it. If it's an Autobot, you'll be compromising their position. If it's a Decepticon, it will attempt to maintain its cover by eliminating anyone who would try to expose it, or it could drop all pretenses and attack. Either way, if you see any suspicious activity that could possibly be Transformer-related, call this number and a NEST operative will attempt to confirm your suspicion." Then a phone number appeared on the bottom of the screen.

"Well, there you have it," said the reporter, "Autobots and Decepticons in the city of Paris. It would seem that everywhere is a potential battle zone for their never-ending guerilla war. So keep a careful eye out, you can barely know whether you're looking at a car or something completely different. Coming up next-"

Aelita hit the mute button. This was a rather big shock. More Decepticons in the city? Even if there were NEST soldiers and Autobots in the city to neutralize them, it was a very worrying thought. If Bludgeon was dangerous, imagine how bad his comrades would be.

Jeremie was talking with Odd on the phone, "Do Yumi and Ulrich know about this?"

"They were the ones who first told me," said Odd, "You guys got that number of theirs written down? We've got them."

"Let's not overreact," said Jeremie, "Just because there are giant robots in the city doesn't mean they're after us. XANA has been gone for six years now, there's no way he can be behind this."

"What about the factory? The supercomputer's still there," said Odd.

"Seeing how huge the Transformers are, I doubt they'll be able to get down into the basement floors," said Jeremie, "And no one's been near the factory for years. It was mostly luck that I found it in the first place. We'll keep an eye out for any Decepticons, but I wouldn't presume that they're here for us. You hear that, Aelita?"

Aelita didn't respond. Somehow, she got a feeling it was just more than chance, more like fate. If Jeremie had never found the supercomputer and turned it on, she, her father, and XANA would still be imprisoned inside Lyoko. It was as if destiny united the five of them for the purpose of defeating and eventually destroying XANA. Of course, some could view it as just coincidence, but coincidence can only cover so much…

"Aelita, did you hear me?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita snapped out of her deep thinking and asked, "What was that?"

"I said, we shouldn't worry about the Decepticons unless they're spotted near the factory, ok?" said Jeremie.

"Oh, of course," said Aelita, "No worries."

"You feeling alright?" asked Jeremie.

"I'm not sure," said Aelita, "I'll probably feel better when I have some food in my stomach."

"Well, if that's all, I'm gonna get some breakfast of my own," said Odd's voice from the cell phone.

"Try to leave something for the other students," said Aelita.

"You wound me," said Odd, "There will be plenty for all, after thirds that is. See you later." With that, the call ended.

"Well, we better hurry if we want something to eat before class starts," said Jeremie.

"Sure," said Aelita, "Let's get going." But as she was leaving the room, she glanced down at her hands and wondered how she made those sparks.

Eventually, the two of them went to Biology class. It was rather fascinated, covering so much more than Mrs. Hertz's class. Today, they were looking at microscopic organisms. "There are more bacteria in a single pond than there are humans on the planet," said the teacher, "But for today, we'll observe the bacteria in these Petri dishes. Everyone partner up, one observes, the other takes notes."

Quite predictably, Jeremie and Aelita paired up. Since the two of them got the best grades and were professional during class, the professor didn't mind it most of the time. Jeremie pushed up his glasses and looked into the microscope and said, "Hmm, these seem to going through osmosis at the moment. They're excreting a bluish fluid and passing it around. Take this down."

Aelita wrote as Jeremie dictated. She was quite a fast writer as she took it down. However, something was going on with her vision. The letters seemed to flicker in front of her eyes and strange symbols flashed on and off on the paper. Her brain seemed to be buzzing with energy. Aelita was starting to feel dizzy…

"How're my star pupils doing?" Aelita snapped out of it to see the professor in front of their table.

"Just fine," said Jeremie, "Bacteria aren't that interesting, but we're getting plenty of information."

"Then you won't mind me looking at your notes," said the professor. Aelita nodded and handed the paper to him. The professor looked at the paper and frowned. He adjusted his glasses and asked, "Are you using some kind of code?"

"What do you mean?" asked Aelita.

"This is hardly the Roman alphabet," said the professor, showing them the paper. Aelita stared at it. The words were made of very unusual-looking symbols. They slightly resembled some sort of Asian calligraphy, but were far different from the ones she used. And yet they were in her handwriting and Aelita could read it as easily as if it were English. However, she had signed her name normally, except a strange symbol replaced the 'A', it looked more like a triangle with an eye in the middle, with a line from each corner connecting it.

"Well, uh, I was trying something for my Latin class," said Aelita, "I was experimenting with a new alphabet and seeing if it was applicable in Latin."

The professor gave the paper a dubious look and said, "Jeremie's on notes now. I can't pass you if I can't read your writing." He then put the paper back on the table and walked away.

Jeremie picked up the paper and asked, "Aelita, what is this?"

"I don't know," said Aelita, "I didn't even know I was writing like that."

"Maybe you need to take a break from writing," said Jeremie, "Let's do what he says. I'll take notes."

"Ok…" said Aelita uncertainly as she and Jeremie switched chairs. Aelita peered into the microscope and said, "Odd, there's some kind of purple germ here."

"Purple? Must be the dye," said Jeremie.

"No, I don't think so," said Aelita, "Let me focus it." She twisted the knobs at the side of the microscope and adjusted the zoom. The purple shape eventually started to come into focus. It seemed a lot more solid than bacteria should look. Eventually, she got a proper focus on it. What she was definitely not a bacterium. It was a tiny symbol, purple, angular, and resembling an alien face.

Before Aelita could move away, she felt metallic limbs clenching around her throat. "Oh no, ve must move so quickly, my dear," said a robotic voice with a think German accent.

Aelita screamed and yanked her head back. However, the microscope still clung onto her head, but it was quickly changing its shape. Spider-like legs unfolded from the base while the lenses reformed into optics. Aelita's screams quickly caught the attention of the rest of the class, as if the spidery Decepticon wasn't enough.

"Nobody move vithin an inch of her!" shouted the Decepticons, "Unless you vould prefer her blind?" The sharp limbs posed at the side of Aelita's eyes. That quickly quieted down the class, particularly Aelita. "Now you, you're coming vith me, unless you vant me to scar zat pretty face of yours," said the Decepticon.

"Why me?" asked Aelita.

"You'll find out soon enough. Now march!"

With little other choice, Aelita started walking towards the door. She opened and walked out. The class was silent, but several of them had taken pictures with their cell phones, including Jeremie. But unlike them, he was sending it to a number he had just saved this morning.

The Decepticon forced Aelita to walk out down the hallways towards the exit. A few people happened to be looking out the doors of their classroom and attempted to move closer. A flash of steel from the Decepticon quickly discouraged them.

Aelita was not a coward, not after all she's experienced because of XANA. However, she knew that struggling against the Decepticon would gain her nothing and it could probably kill her easily. Why it did not choose to do so now, or even go through all the trouble of kidnapping her, she could not fathom. "You won't get away with this," said Aelita, "NEST will be all over you as soon as they get here."

"Ha, who says I came alone?" said the Decepticon, "Even if ze Autobots and zere human allies get here, I came vell prepared for such an occasion." The spider-bot activated a comlink and said, "Scalpel to Breakdown, I have ze girl, prepare for our getavay."

Eventually, Aelita was forced to walk out of the building and into the parking lot. As she was stepping onto the pavement, a white Lamborghini pulled up to them. The fact that there was no driver at the wheel identified it as a Cybertronian and the symbol on the hood confirmed it as a Decepticon. "Get in," said a voice from the Lamborghini.

"Why should I?" said Aelita defiantly.

"Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten my varning," said Scalpel, tightening his legs around Aelita's head.

"I'm not getting into any Decepticon," said Aelita.

"Oh, don't tell me you've come all zis vay only to lose your face now," said Scalpel.

"Can we hurry this up?" asked the sports car, "Those Autobots can be on us at any moment."

"Do not vorry, Breakdown," said Scalpel, "Ze Autobots don't know vhere ve are."

Suddenly, there was the sound of wheels skidding. Aelita and Scalpel looked ahead to see a blue Chevrolet Volt coming down the nearby highway at high speed. The hybrid car made a hairpin turn, which created a loud screech of rubber against concrete that caused Aelita to wince. It then barreled down the road there were before coming to a stop not too far from Breakdown. A pair of guns popped out from the sides of its front as a voice from it said, "Step away from the girl."

"Breakdown, dispose of zis Autobot," said Scalpel.

The Lamborghini rolled back a bit before starting to shift. The sides of the car split off to form arms while the rest of the car rose up on the front bumpers, which quickly became feet. Pretty soon, a blue head with a red face popped up over the chest, made of the rear end. "Come and get me, Autobot," said Breakdown.

The Chevrolet Volt also shifted up into a robot mode. "Not like you to challenge someone, Breakdown," said the Autobot, "Records hold that you flee at the first sign of a fight."

"Not this time," said Breakdown, "I have something special this time." A shimmering field of energy appeared around his body.

"Pretty, but unimpressive," said the Autobot before extending a pair of whips from his arms. He swung them at Breakdown, but they bounced right off of him.

"A force field of mine own invention," said Scalpel, "Designed to be impenetrable to any energy-charged veaponry, including your electro-vhips."

"Yep, nothing you can do to hurt me now, Blue Boy," said Breakdown.

"My name is Jolt," said the Autobot, "And I don't need whips to take you down." He retracted his whips and charged Breakdown. Breakdown just sidestepped him and kicked him to the ground.

Aelita watched as the two transformed cars started fighting each other. It was extremely fascinating, not to mention really cool. However, despite the attention-grabbing nature of the battle, Aelita saw it as a good time to escape.

She was about to walk away when she felt cold metal squeezing her face. "Ah, ah, ah, ve mustn't vander off now," said Scalpel.

"You won't be able to take me anywhere when your ride's been busted," observed Aelita when Jolt managed to make a rather large dent in Breakdown's shoulder.

"Oh, I think my force field vill be more zan enough to help Breakdown defeat zat Autobot. Unless, you vere to shut it down somehow," said Scalpel.

Aelita's eyes widened in surprise. "How could you-" she started.

"Aelita! Get away from there!" Aelita turned around to see Jeremie running towards her.

"Jeremie, stay-" started Aelita when Scalpel brought a razor-sharp edge to her throat.

"If you don't vant her mutilated, I suggest you be ze vun who moves avay," said Scalpel.

"Actually, I think you'll be the one who'll be moving," said Jeremie before throwing something. Scalpel got ready to attack when it landed at Aelita's feet. It looked like some kind of beeper that's been tampered with, making it slightly bulkier.

Scalpel laughed and said, "Zat's the best you could-" Suddenly, the beeper left off a high-pitched sound and shook. Scalpel winced and started clawing at his head. When his grip loosened, Aelita grabbed him and pulled him off her shoulders before throwing him into the bushes.

"Aelita, are you alright?" asked Jeremie.

Aelita examined her hands. There some bleeding scratches from where she had grabbed Scalpel's sharp edges, but they weren't deep. "Nothing a few bandages can't take care of," said Aelita, "What did you use on him?"

"It's a sonic mine," said Jeremie, "It's designed to mess up the control signals of machines. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I thought it may work on a smaller Decepticon like him. Don't think it would affect a bigger one like Bludgeon."

"Well, thanks for saving…" said Aelita before realizing something, "You tried to save me with untested technology? What if it didn't work?"

"I was going to use it when XANA took over another machine, but we defeated him before a chance like that happened," said Jeremie, "And it worked, didn't it?"

"Well, I suppose you're right. But what do we do about them?" asked Aelita, pointing at Breakdown and Jolt, who were still brawling.

"We take cover until they're finished fighting. This isn't like last time; neither of them are using energy weapons. Besides, you might not be able to deflect if they did," said Jeremie.

"True," said Aelita, "That force field makes energy weapons ineffective." Then Aelita thought of something. "But maybe I can affect it."

"Aelita, you don't know what you're doing," said Jeremie.

"I know, but I'm still gonna try. Jolt tried to save me from those two creeps. I have to at least try to help him. If it does work, he'll be able to finish Breakdown off. Apparently he's a scaredy-cat, or the robot equivalent of one," said Aelita. She then held out her hands towards the fighting Cybertronians and closed her eyes. She concentrated on Breakdown's force field. '_Grow weaker, shut down, stop protecting,_' she thought. The words probably didn't do much to help, but the intentions were clear. Her hands started to glow pink.

Breakdown scored another hit on Jolt before he felt something funny. The force field stated to tickle slightly as pink spots appeared on it. "What the slag's going on?" he asked as the spots grew. Then the whole force field glowed pink before disappearing completely. "What the-" said Breakdown before trying to reactivate it, but the force field refused to respond. Cold fear started to grip his spark as he realized the implications. "Uh, I think I'm due for a tune-up. Gotta go," he said before he started to run away.

Jolt also picked up the implications. "You're not going anywhere," said Jolt before extending and swinging a whip at Breakdown's feet. The whip caught one of his feet, causing him to trip. However, it didn't latch on, allowing Breakdown to shake it off.

"Breakdown, you're under arrest for attempted kidnapping of a civilian, resisting an Autobot, intruding on Autobot-protected territory, etc., etc." The tone in Jolt's voice obviously indicated that he considered it a waste of time to say this, "Continue to resist arrest and deadly force will be used."

Breakdown frantically looked around for something to use. Unfortunately, his optics happened to come across Jeremie. He quickly grabbed Jeremie and got back up to his feet. "You zap me and he gets fried too," said Breakdown.

"Jeremie!" called Aelita.

Jeremie struggled to get out of Breakdown's hand, but the Decepticon's grip was too strong. He quickly started thinking. It wouldn't do any good for Aelita to toss him the sonic scrambler. At most, it would only annoy Breakdown. He didn't think it would be a good idea to tell her to try to do her energy-manipulation thing, seeing how the wrong person would hear him.

Then Jeremie noticed that Breakdown was shaking. He thought it was just his engine vibrating before he realized that Breakdown was trembling. Didn't Aelita say that Breakdown was naturally a coward? Sure, he was scared of Jolt's power, but that's why he had Jeremie in his clutches. But was that all? Decepticons were well-known to hate organics, but there's often a thin line between hatred and fear. Either way, there wasn't much left to lose. Jeremie turned his head around as much as he could and looked up at Breakdown's head. "AAAAAH…CHOO!" he sneezed upwards, sending small particles of spit and mucus towards Breakdown's face.

"YEARGH!" Breakdown screamed before dropping Jeremie like a hot potato. Fortunately, Breakdown wasn't a very tall Decepticon so Jeremie only fell down a couple of feet. "Organic germs! Get them off! Get them off!" Breakdown frantically rubbed his face to remove any contamination that Jeremie could have given him.

Jolt saw the opportunity and called, "Move out of the way!" The Autobot swung his whip, letting out a blast of electricity that shocked Breakdown. The Decepticon staggered away before Jolt swung his other whip and caught Breakdown in the chest. A high-intensity shock when down the metallic cable and directly into Breakdown's spark. The Decepticon juddered and shook as he overloaded before his chest exploded. With a metallic groan, Breakdown fell onto the ground, the light fading from his optics.

"You…you killed him," said Aelita.

"I told him resisting would allow me to get lethal," said Jolt as he walked over to Breakdown. He kicked the corpse over and surveyed the damage. "Yep, definitely dead, you should be glad too. Breakdown would have tossed you away when he was safe, probably into heavy traffic or the river. Clever thinking with that backfire."

"It's called a sneeze," said Jeremie, "It's an organic reaction to remove irritants from our nostrils."

"Uh…whatever," said Jolt, "NEST will clean up this mess. I think I did a pretty decent job with keeping the damage to a minimum, don't you think?"

"Well, you did get too close to the cars," said Aelita, pointing at a few cars that had dents and scratches from where blows went wild.

Jolt shrugged, "I've seen worse. You two better scram, you don't want Scalpel on you again, believe me."

"But he's stunned in the bushes over there," said Jeremie, pointing.

"Now, how did he get stunned?" asked Jolt, a slight tinge of suspicion creeping into his voice.

"Uh, we really need to get back to class," said Aelita, "Thanks for saving us."

Jolt watched the two head back into the university building before activating his comlink, "Drift, it's Jolt, I think I spotted two of those humans you were talking about yesterday. Yeah, yeah, I get that feeling too. Also, send a cleanup crew over here. We've got a dead Decepticon and a stunned one to pick up." Jolt paused a minute to scan the bushes for any Cybertronian signs, but all he got was an imprint of energy and a tiny trail of Energon radiation going one way. The trail was ice cold. "Er, scratch that last part," said Jolt.

A few hours later…

Elsewhere, in an undisclosed location inside the outskirts of Paris, Scalpel scuttled into an unused warehouse. It had not been easy to get here. It required a lot of hitching rides on the undersides of cars. His microscope mode may have a certain elegance befitting a scientist like himself, but it wasn't very useful going from place. Perhaps he should have chosen a smaller vehicle mode, like that of the traitor, Wheelie. But the microscope suited him more.

Scalpel wandered through the warehouse until he came across a rotten-looking crate. Most humans would have dismissed it in an instant. But if one took a closer look, they'd see that the wooden planks were really all one piece.

Scalpel walked up to it and yanked on a nail that had the Decepticon insignia on the head. The crate rumbled before parts of it started shifting and unfolding. Within seconds, a small communication center was in front of Scalpel. Scalpel tapped the keys and quickly got a lock on a certain frequency. Eventually, a face appeared on the screen, "Scalpel, it has been a while."

"Indeed it has," said Scalpel, "So nice to be speaking vith my old colleague Flatline again."

"Let's skip the pleasantries," said Flatline, "Did the mission succeed?"

"Indeed," said Scalpel, "Ve found ze girl at ze university. Ve had problems vith an Autobot, as expected."

"How did the force field perform?" asked Flatline.

"Very vell," said Scalpel, "Ze Autobot could not get through it, until ze girl interfered as expected."

"And Breakdown?" asked Flatline.

"He did not survive," said Scalpel with a casual shrug, "An exceptional loss, vhat vith ze great knowledge ve have gained."

"Yes, but let's not forget," said Flatline, "If my theory is correct, we won't be the only competitors in this game. We must keep a constant watch on her. And keep an eye on her friend too. If we must act, they shall be useful bargaining ships to make sure she'll cooperate with us."

"But of course," said Scalpel, "But vhat if ze zink of using zem?"

"Then we hope there will be interference," said Flatline, "If the stories are true, much rides on this, as you well know."

"But of course," said Scalpel, "Has Skystalker managed to set up ze probes?"

"Yes," said Flatline, "We're one step ahead now. Let's keep it that way."

* * *

Here's the second chapter of my Code Lyoko/Transformers story. Once again, it takes six years after the series finale of Code Lyoko and right after Revenge of the Fallen.

Things start to cook up now. Those of you familiar with Code Lyoko and the Transformers film series might recognize Aelita's symptoms, but what they lead up to is yet to be revealed. As for the appearing Transformers, they of course include Jolt and Scalpel AKA The Doctor from Revenge of the Fallen. Breakdown's based off of ROTF Brakedown, who's pretty much the same except for the trademark issue. Flatline made an appearance in Tales of the Fallen #6 and we'll see more about him later.

I wanted to kill off a Decepticon to make sure this story won't be considered too domesticated. I picked Breakdown because he was killed in the two post-ROTF comics. I briefly considered Dirge, but a harrier jet would stick out too much compared to a sports car. Anyhow, there will be more trouble along the way so keep an eye out for the next update, which I hope will be soon. Not sure about this month because of college stuff, but probably early December. Please review.


	3. Thugs and Twins

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

**Book 1: Earth**

**Chapter 3: Thugs and Twins**

In a shadowy room, five men sat at a hexagon-shaped table, each sitting at five of the sides of the hexagon. The sixth side was occupied by a large monitor that took up the whole side. Currently displayed on the monitor were various images of the recent Cybertronian activity that has been happening in Paris lately. There were quite a couple of footages that featured the Lyoko warriors, particularly Aelita.

"Gentlemen, we may have a crisis on our hands," said one of the shadowed men, "With the Decepticons being active in this area, it could endanger our entire operation."

"And that's not all," said another, "There's several clues that indicate that these Decepticons knew what was here to find. As long as they're here, we're threatened by exposure."

"We should take the girl now before any of them reach out to her," said a third shadowed man.

"Unfortunately, it won't be that easy," said his colleague, "She will be more closely protected now that the Decepticons have already made a move towards capturing her."

"She is essential to our entire plan," said the one hasn't spoken yet, "We can't let either the Autobots or Decepticons get her."

"I could not agree more," said a computerized voice from the monitor, which made the others stop talking, "We have put decades into our work. Our plan is nearing fruition, but we cannot fail now. We must have the girl within our custody as soon as possible."

"But an attempt to take her now could risk complete exposure," said one of the shadowed men.

"Which is why we must act indirectly," said the voice through the monitor, "If we cannot take her outright, we must take those who have a strong social connection to her."

"We all know she has no family," said another shadowed man, "The girl virtually exists on forged documents. Are you suggesting that we-"

"Of course not!" interrupted his fellow, "After how long we've been working on her? I think not. Besides, it would arouse instant suspicion. There has to be others."

"Well, there's the Belpois boy," said another, "He seems to be her boyfriend. He could serve as excellent bait."

"Yes, but he's too close to the girl," said his colleague.

"Well, that's the whole point-"

"No, I mean physically close. He was right there when the Decepticons attempt their kidnapping. If we take him, it'll raise almost as much suspicion as taking her."

"But she has other friends," said the voice through the monitor, "These other four who have a very close relationship with them. They might even have knowledge of the supercomputer." The screen zoomed in on pictures of Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William.

"Unfortunately, Dunbar is back in military training," said one of the shadowed men, "And we all know how disastrous a kidnap attempt there would be. Remember the Qatar base the Decepticons tried to take?"

"Correct," said the voice through the monitor, "But we won't stoop to unnecessary force. We shall focus on these three." The zoom-in on William faded away, leaving Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi. "Human forces shall be quite sufficient. I presume that you've established connection with an ideal group to retrieve them."

One of the shadowed figures nodded and said, "I've already sent them the information and equipment they'll need. It's amazing how a couple thousand euro-dollars can stifle curiosity." The other shadowed figures chuckled at that.

"Very well," said the voice through the monitor, "May the next time we speak, it will be about the girl in our captivity."

At the art academy, Odd was trying to get his latest model in the right position. "Ok, move your arm forward a little bit more," said Odd.

"Odd, make up your mind before I get a cramp," said Yumi as she moved her right arm forward a bit. She wondered why she even agreed to this. Surely there were other girls that would be glad to pose for portraits. But Odd had won her over with a mixture of flattery and compromise. Mostly that he'd do her in a traditional Japanese style and she gets to keep it after Odd's professor graded it.

The academy certainly had decent props for painting. Apparently Japanese style paintings were done before as there was a bench just perfect for it. Yumi provided the robe she was wearing.

"Ok, hold that pose," said Odd, "Now think of something philosophical. I want you to look like you're pondering."

"Like what?" asked Yumi.

"Oh, I don't know, what the real value of honor is, which came first: the chicken or the egg…"

"How about why giant robots from space are appearing our city?" suggested Ulrich, who was sitting on a nearby chair. That was another compromise, Ulrich making sure Odd didn't get _too_ creative with Yumi's portrait.

"Uh, sure, that'll work," said Odd as he started on the painting.

"Well, Paris is the capital city of France," said Yumi, "It's natural to assume that the Decepticons would want to target it."

"Yes, but it's not an actual attack," said Ulrich, "If they wanted to attack it, they wouldn't waste time sneaking around and hiding in museums. They'd start shooting at the buildings and people; bomb the heck out of everything."

"Well, we don't know how their military tactics work," said Odd, "Come to think of it, who's supposed to be their leader again?"

"Well, their founder was something like…The Forsaken, wasn't it?" asked Ulrich.

"No, no, it was The Fallen," said Yumi.

"Yumi, don't turn your head," said Odd. Yumi returned her head to its former position. "I think they've been lead by someone named Starscream."

"Well, I've heard that The Fallen's apprentice, Megatron, reassumed command," said Yumi.

"Actually, rumor has it that Megatron's gone into hiding or is on the run or something. Anyways, Starscream's leading until Megatron comes back," said Ulrich.

"You sure about that?" asked Yumi.

"No," said Ulrich, "NEST's limiting the amount of news they're letting the public hear."

"Well, they have a good reason," said Odd, "Like they said, the Decepticons could overhear and change their tactics."

"Which brings us back to why they're in Paris in the first place," said Yumi.

"Maybe they're here to steal something," said Odd, "Like you said, capital of Paris, good things to steal here."

"Odd, these are robotic militants from another galaxy," said Ulrich, "They wouldn't be interested in pieces of art or Earth currency."

"Right, at most, they'd want military knowledge or tech," said Yumi, "And a museum's not a good place to go for the latest stuff."

"Right, so they're probably looking for something else," said Odd.

"But then again, what does it matter to us?" asked Yumi, "It's not our problem, not our war."

"It might soon be," said Ulrich, "A pair of them tried to kidnap Aelita yesterday, remember?"

"Right," said Yumi, "but why her?"

"Other than the fact that she shorted out that Bludgeon guy?" pointed out Odd.

"Not to mention her father's created a supercomputer that's capable of time reversal as well as transferring matter between a virtual world it contains and the real world," said Ulrich.

"You think the Transformers got anything like that?" asked Odd.

"Maybe," said Ulrich, "I mean, they can travel to other galaxies, transform into alien vehicles, and who knows what else?"

Just then, a faint grumbling was heard. Odd and Ulrich jumped and looked around. Yumi's face blushed and she said, "Sorry, I ate a light breakfast today."

"Well, I suppose we can stop for lunch," said Odd, "I've got enough down for a basic portrait."

"Good, I'm getting a cramp," said Yumi as she stood up.

"Yeah, let's go out for lunch," said Ulrich.

"You know," said Odd, "I might get an even better grade if I did a nude portrait."

Ulrich and Yumi gave Odd an annoyed look before Yumi took a paintbrush from a white paint can and covered Odd's face in a coat of white pain. Then Ulrich painted over it, giving Odd a clown look. "There we go, extra credit," said Ulrich with a smirk.

Odd gave an annoyed look and said, "Everybody's a critic."

The three of them decided to go into town for lunch. Yumi had changed out of her Japanese robes for something more modern, namely a black tank top and matching jeans. The boys were in their usual attires. Of course, there were plenty of young adults around on the street, so they didn't stand out that much.

There was one slight problem with going out to lunch in Paris: too many choices. There was virtually every kind of restaurant from cyber cafes to gourmet and classy. The trio weren't really looking for the latter and weren't that picky that day. However, this still left too many possibilities open.

"Maybe we can hit that Chinese buffet," suggested Odd.

"I don't know," said Yumi, "Oddly enough, I'm not feeling like Asian."

"That's funny," said Odd, "Didn't peg you for being Hawaiian."

Yumi smacked Odd lightly across the head. "Don't quit your day job," said Yumi, "But I was thinking maybe Mediterranean."

"Nah, that stuff gives me gas," said Odd, "Maybe we can just go to a burger joint."

"I'd rather not have something that'd be the equivalent of injecting 2 grams of fat straight into my thighs," said Yumi.

"Geeze, you're picky," said Odd.

"Look who's talking," said Yumi, "Ulrich, what do you think?"

Ulrich had been quiet for a while, but now he added in a low voice, "I think those two guys have been following us?"

"What?" Yumi started to turn around on instinct, but Ulrich kept a tight grip on her shoulders.

"Don't do that," said Ulrich, "That'll just let them know we're onto them."

"Which ones are they?" asked Odd, glancing back as much as he could.

"Those two, at the streetlamp," said Ulrich. The two he had just indicated where a pair of your typical street thugs: tattoos, piercings, bad hair, and tough guy clothes. In a way, they reminded Ulrich of those bikers that XANA once possessed and sent to attack them.

"Are you sure they've been tailing us?" asked Yumi.

"I think so," said Ulrich, "I noticed them a few blocks ago. I thought it was just coincidence, but they keep turning the same corners we did."

"Uh, not to sound pessimistic, but I don't think they're the only ones interested in us," said Odd. He pointed forward briefly; enough to point out a similar pair of thugs up ahead. The two of them may have been there by sheer coincidence, but then they started walking towards the trio.

"Let's keep going," said Ulrich, "I don't think they're going to make a move in public." The three of them sped up a bit, but unfortunately, the thugs ahead sped up as well. The thugs behind were starting to gang ground as well.

"Head down this alley up ahead," said Odd, "We don't want to have them all on us."

"That sounds like what they want us to do," said Ulrich.

"Do we have a choice?" asked Yumi. The three of them turned down an alley up ahead and to the left. It was a rather spacious alley, large enough for a truck to drive through, though not cozily.

"Think we lost them?" asked Ulrich.

Odd glanced over his shoulder to see the four thugs entering the alley behind them. "Uh, Ulrich, remember what you said about it being like a trap?"

"Yeah," said Ulrich.

"Well, I'm thinking less 'trapping' and more like 'herding'," said Odd.

"Then I think it's time to ditch the sheepdogs," said Yumi before the three of them started running.

The four men behind them also started running after them. However, the trio was younger and faster than they were, but not yet fast enough to lose them. The chase lead through several alleyways, the trio making as many sharp turns as possible to throw off their pursuers. However, the thugs kept dogging them.

"Man, these guys must know these alleys better than we do," said Odd.

"That's not a comforting thought," said Ulrich.

Eventually, they ended up near an emptier spot of the city, where an overpass stretching over several buildings nearby. The trio stopped in the middle of the empty lot to catch their breath. "Well, at least we're in open space now," said Odd.

Just then, the thugs behind them appeared and one of them whistled loudly. Suddenly, tough guys, gangsters, and other thugs started coming out of the other alleys until there were at least 20.

"Yeah, their open space," said Yumi.

"Chances of negotiation?" asked Odd.

"I don't need to have Jeremie's brains to tell me it's zero," said Ulrich, getting into a fighting stance.

"It's never that way," said Odd as he and Yumi got ready to fight too.

On the roads not too far away, a pair of cars were weaving back and forth between lanes, much to the frustration of the other drivers. The green Chevrolet Beat and orange Chevrolet Trax moved in oddly synchronous timing, almost as if their drivers could directly interact with each other and yet drive well at the same time. However, nobody knew that the 'drivers' were a lot less real than they appeared and their license plates, SKIDZ on the Beat and MUDFLAP on the Trax, were more than just personalized plates.

"Man, how come we get stuck out with the dead end assignment?" whined Skids over his and Mudflap's telepathic link.

"Well, Optimus did say that we need to be checkin' the streets around the city to find anythin' peculiar goin' on that could be related to the Decepticons," responded Mudflap.

"I know what Optimus said," said Skids, "But this here's a big waste of good talent. We should be whoopin' Decepticons, not goin' on patrols."

"Hey, there ain't any messengers better than us back on Cybertron," said Mudflap.

"Got that right," said Skids, "Hey, how bout we buzz this loudmouth up ahead?"

"Sure thing," said Mudflap.

The Autobot twins drove up to a sports car in front of them, Mudflap on the left and Skids right behind. The driver of the sports car had his stereos on way too loud, to the point that booming sounds could be heard by anyone too close to the convertible. The Twins waited until the driver barely noticed them before they blew their horns as loud as possible. That jolted the driver out of his train of thoughts. He looked at the two cars that honked at him, only to see there were no drivers. The sports car's driver quickly put on speeds to get as far away as possible from the possible 'Decepticons'.

The Twins laughed at their prank while they re-rezzed their drivers. Just then, Skids 'glanced' over the side of the overpass they were driving on now and said, "Hey, Mudflap, check this out." The two of them slowed down a bit. In the empty lot below, a group of humans were surrounding three other humans. From what they've learned about Earth culture, the outnumbering group was considered the unsavory tough types.

"Ooh, looks like a big fight's warmin' up," said Mudflap.

"Sure does," said Skids.

Just then, the cars behind them started honking and shouting at the two of them to speed up.

"Humans, they don't got no patience, do they?" said Skids.

"Not like us machines, they don't," agreed Mudflap. The two of them pulled over to the side to let the humans pass, then put themselves in park to watch the fight.

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were in the center of a closing circle of gangsters. What's more, several of them had weapons. Not real weapons, but pipes and chains. Then one of them said, "Remember, the big guy wants them brought in alive. So don't rough them up too much."

"How thoughtful," said Ulrich, "Yumi, how about we strike straight ahead? Odd, you keep them off our sides."

"Gee, thanks for leaving me with all the work," said Odd sarcastically.

Then the three of them charged forward. Naturally, the thugs ran to meet them. Two kicks from Ulrich and Yumi sent the first two down, while Odd gave another a punch on the jaw. However, more of them kept coming in. While the three of them weren't as muscular as the gangsters, they weren't kids anymore. They actually managed to knock down a fair amount of the creeps.

However, these punks, though ill-mannered and undignified, were hardened by who knows how many years of street-fighting. Eventually, they started to get the upper hand, getting into a tighter circle and giving more punches than they received. Then three of them managed to grab the trio's arms behind their backs, effectively keeping them in place. A few of them threw in a few more punches for good measure.

Then a black van drove up to them and stopped. Then a few more thugs climbed out, the one that was driving with a smoking cigarette in his mouth, chain tattoos on most of his exposed skin, and plenty of metal on his clothes. "So we got them?" he asked smoothly.

"Sure thing, Big Link," said one of the grunts, "Direct match with their pics. Put up a hell of a fight."

"Good," said Big Link, "Now remember, boys, we're getting big moolah to bring these kids in alive. They're still breathing, right?"

"Eh, just a couple of bruises, a few bleeding spots, nothing that'd matter," said another grunt.

"Thataboy," said Big Link, walking forward and looking at the trio, "Bit of a shame to hand them over. Could always use some more meat on my team. And a little decoration never did any harm." He put his hand on Yumi's chin, making her look up. However, Yumi pulled her head away and snapped at his hand. Big Link had already withdrawn his fingers before Yumi could bite them.

The other grunts laughed and one of them said, "Looks like this decoration's more harm than she looks," said one of them.

Big Link laughed and said, "Even better, I like them with some bite."

"Aren't we supposed to be handing these guys over?" asked one thug, "You know, big payday?"

"The payers' only want the kids alive when we hand them over," said Big Link, "They didn't say what we couldn't do along the way." Several of the gangsters chuckled darkly and the trio tried to get out of their restraints even harder, but they were too tired from the fighting.

Meanwhile, the Autobot Twins had been paying close attention. The fight had gotten pretty exciting, but then the thugs started ganging up on them. That was particularly unfair, seeing how the trio was outnumbered eight to one. Then they had caught them and started hitting them when they couldn't fight back, that really grinded their gears. And overhearing the leader made them antsy with anxiousness.

"Hey, we gotta do somethin'," said Mudflap, "They's gonna haul him off and I don't think they're gonna be gentle about where they go."

"I know it," said Skids, "Them creeps are nearly as bad as the 'Cons. They're totally not fightin' decent."

"Then we gotta go down there and help those kids out," said Mudflap.

"You'd think I'd be sittin' here if I could?" said Skids, "Prime says we're not supposed to be interferin' with civilians. They don't need us to be messin' with their problems."

"But didn't Prime say that protectin' humans' our supercedin' priority?" asked Mudflap.

There was a pause before Skids said, "Hey, you're right. Savin' humans does come first."

"So we waitin' here for?" asked Mudflap.

Skids revved his engine and pulled back, "A runnin' start."

"Ok, enough toying around," said Big Link, "Let's stuff these kids in the van and get going. Oh, and let's take the scenic route." The other thugs started laughing loudly at that.

Just then, the sound of revving engines and honking caught their ears. They looked around for a few seconds before looking up just in time to see a pair of hatchbacks jump the overpass. The closest thugs ran away to avoid being potentially squished by the falling vehicles. However, as the two cars fell, they started altering. Panels and parts flipped, pivoted, slid, and rotated, giving the pair a completely different look. When they had landed, they had assumed their true robot forms. The blue color of their optics and the insignias on their chest identified them as Autobots. However, these two didn't have the best-looking faces; the green one actually had buck teeth, with one of the teeth gold.

"Ok, you lowdown scallywags," said the green one, "You best surrender right here and now."

"Yeah, cause we is Autobots and we're gonna lay some whoop-ass if you ya'll don't get away from them kids,' said the orange one.

The thugs looked at each other for a second. Some of them made the smart decision and ran for it while some were actually brave enough to charge the two Autobots, banging their legs with their pipes. Of course, this had about as much success as one would expect.

"Hey, cut it out!" snapped the green one, "You're messing up my paint job."

"Ya think we should smack 'em around a bit?" asked the orange one.

"We gotta be gentle," said the green one, "Prime says we shouldn't hurt humans, even if they're attacking us. So just smack 'em around a little bit."

"Ok," said the orange one before flicking his hand. The 'gentle blow' sent the unlucky ruffian a dozen feet back with the wind knocked out of him. His partner also 'lightly' smacked the thugs near him, knocking them several yards away with little will to get back in the fight.

However, Big Link was not as surprised or excited as his underlings. "Huh, so the Autobots did show up after all," he said calmly before taking a long drag from his cigarette, "Makes the job more interesting." He walked over to the van and reached past the driver's door. He pulled out what looked like some sort of extended tazer. "Let's see if this gizmo works," said Big Link before pointing at the Autobots and hitting a button on it. Almost instantly, the Autobots froze in place, but the look in their optics clearly said that this wasn't their choice. "Ok, we're back on schedule. Get the kids in," said Big Link.

However, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi had taken advantage of the distraction and stomped down on their captor's feet. As the thugs let go of the three to grab their sore feet, they were quickly judo-flipped over and were soon unconscious.

"Let's make a break for it," said Odd.

"Not sure if we can get past the rest," said Ulrich, "They wouldn't have gone far, I think."

"Besides, those two just saved us," said Yumi, "We can leave them stuck like that."

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Odd, "Wave a magic wand and make them move again?"

"Wand…" muttered Ulrich before looking at Big Link who was keeping the device pointed at the Autobots and the button down. "Odd, that's it. That gizmo's what keeping them frozen, but he has to keep it on them to make them stay. We just need to get it away from him."

"In that case, I consider a threefold tackle," said Odd, "You guys in?"

"Count on it," said Yumi.

The three of them ran at Big Link. Despite the great urge and the excitement of it, they didn't yell as they ran as that would attract Big Link's attention too soon and thus give him time to defend himself and thwart our heroes' attempt. However, they did yell right when they were on top of him, which distracted him enough for them to completely get the drop on him and tackled him. Of course, a man his size wouldn't have toppled so easily, but three college kids attacking at once was enough to both knock him over and to knock the device out of his hands.

Big Link glared at the trio and said, "You're gonna pay for that." Suddenly, he was cut off when a large green hand picked him up. The kids looked up to see the green Autobot holding Big Link in his larger right arm.

"Not today, buddy boy," said the Autobot, "Hey Mudflap, you got them other crooks?"

"I got 'em, Skids," said the orange robot, holding several other thugs up with his larger left arm.

"Ok, hold on for a second," said Skids. He walked over to a railing besides the road and ripped off a large piece of it. Then Skids and Mudflap held the thugs together while they wrapped the railing around them and wrapping the ends together, as easy as if it were a twist-tie.

"That oughta hold them till the human security comes," said Mudflap, "What do they call it again?"

"I think it's call the 'puh-leece'," said Skids.

"Uh, thanks for saving us," said Odd.

"Oh, it weren't no trouble," said Skids, "That's what we Autobots do; protect the innocent."

"I thought we's about whooping Decepticons," said Mudflap.

"That too," said Skids.

"Who are you guys?" asked Yumi.

"I'm Skids, one of Optimus Prime's greatest warriors," said Skids.

"And I'm Mudflap, the best of Prime's warriors," said Mudflap.

"You are not the best fighter," said Skids.

"I'm better than you," said Mudflap.

"You are definitely not better than me, I'm the better fighter," snapped Skids.

"On whose authoritah?" snapped Mudflap.

"My own authoritah" said Skids.

"That ain't worth nothing," said Mudflap.

"Worth more than yours," said Skids.

"Is not," said Mudflap.

"Is too."

"Is not."

As the three kids watched the Autobots bicker, Yumi and Odd could see a very familiar pattern forming. "Uh, you guys aren't siblings, are you?" asked Odd.

The two Autobots paused at that and Mudflap said, "Actually, we're twins."

"How can a robot have a twin?" asked Ulrich.

"It's simple, er, ah…" started Skids.

"It's too complicated for humans to understand?" suggested Mudflap.

"Exactly, too complicated," said Skids, "Don't bust your brains out tryin' to figure it out."

"I think their brains would be the ones busting," whispered Yumi.

Odd, however, had gone to pick up the device that Big Link had dropped. "Say guys, what do you make of this?" he asked.

Ulrich and Odd looked at it. "Pretty high tech, especially if it can make a giant alien robot freeze," said Ulrich.

"Not what you'd find on your average street punk," said Yumi.

"So where'd they get it?" asked Odd.

"He said that they were being paid for kidnapping us," said Ulrich, "Maybe whoever was paying them gave it to them."

"But who'd have the tech to paralyze Cybertronians?" asked Yumi.

"Exactly," said Ulrich.

"Uh, we gotta take that thingamabob with us," said Skids to the gang.

"Yeah, Optimus won't like it for a weapon like to be left lyin' around where anyone could get it," said Mudflap.

"Which is why I'm gonna give it to him," said Skids.

"Hey, I'm gonna give it to him," said Mudflap.

"In your dreams," said Skids.

"No way, I call it," said Mudflap.

"Uh, perhaps we should hold it until NEST gets here," said Yumi, "You don't want to accidentally break it in your hands."

The Twins looked at each other before shrugging and said, "Ok."

Suddenly, Odd looked horrified and said, "Oh no, in all the excitement, I've forgotten something very important."

"What is it?" asked Ulrich.

"We haven't had lunch yet," said Odd.

The darkened hexagon-shaped table was occupied again with five men and the monitor on the sixth side. A grim mood was in the air. The monitor was showing a clip from the news that was on during that afternoon: "In local events, a trio of college students was nearly kidnapped today. The culprit was a convict known as 'Big Link' who had been a problem for local constables for some time and his gang. Fortunately, a pair of Autobots, named Skids and Mudflap, was patrolling nearby and came to the rescue. The culprits have been captured and are awaiting trial for their numerous crimes."

Then the news clip shut off, leaving the screen mostly blank. "This attempt has been far from satisfactory," said the voice through the monitor, "Not only has our hired men failed to deliver the three to us, but now the Autobots will be more suspicious and alert than before."

"Sir, if I may," said one of the shadowed men, "The Autobots' arrival onto the scene was completely coincidental."

"The stasis wand would have been efficient enough to keep them at bay until we had the captives safely in our grasp. It is not so much that we underestimated their fighting capability in that we overestimated our hired help's capability. These men were too overconfident and that left a chink large enough for the targets to exploit. Recommendation of hired help from now on will be taken with greater scrutiny. We do not want repeats of failure," said the monitor.

The shadowed men nodded, one of them was new, having taken the place of the one who had been the one to hire the gang. "You will be pleased to know that we have delivered appropriate punishment to our former member, as an example to what it means to bungle," said that man.

"Good," said the voice through the monitor, "But the current crisis is in bigger jeopardy. NEST now has possession of the stasis wand. Whether they can trace it back to us is not something we can wait for. We now must act more directly."

"Are you suggesting that we have our forces move in to capture the targets?" asked one of the men.

"No," said the monitor, "I see now that human forces will not be sufficient. The puzzle is nearly complete. We just need this girl to complete it. I have signaled for Operative M to come. He shall arrive in approximately two days."

The other men muttered among themselves, a tinge of consternation in their voices. One of them spoke up, "Sir, don't you think this may be a bit too rash. Operative M is not as discreet in action. If he attempts to retrieve the girl, it could expose our entire organization."

"In the long run, it will matter not," said the voice through the monitor, "The time for secrets is rapidly nearing its end. Once we have the girl, there will be no need to hide our actions. We shall achieve our grand destiny at last. You have received the information on Operative M. I want everything prepared for his arrival. You are dismissed." Then the monitor turned off.

One of the men grumbled, "I hate how he's always ordering us around."

"It will pay off soon," said another, "Like he said, when we've got the girl, we'll have the whole world in our hands."

* * *

There's another chapter in. I had a little trouble figuring out how this one would go. Not in terms of the action, but on the filler. Comparatively, this chapter may not be as exciting as the last two, but at least it brings Skids and Mudflap into the story. I intend to be more careful with their portrayl so they won't be as offensive as some people found them in the movie.

Anyhow, now we've got another group to worry about, one outside the Autobots and Decepticons. Who are they? What do they want with Aelita? Who is this mysterious Operative M? For answers to these and more, keep an eye out for the next chapter, which might not be coming so soon with college back in session. But I will be working on it.


	4. Message from the Sky

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

**Book 1: Earth**

**Chapter 4: Message from the Sky**

_Aelita found herself in a strange cave. While the rock formations seemed natural, they were bent in odd patterns and the whole cave seemed too much like a corridor. However, since there was no way back, wherever back was, Aelita just keep walking forwards._

_As she walked through the passageway, she noticed unusual carvings appearing on the walls. They looked like the strange script she had written with in science class, but they looked much older and she couldn't understand what they said. There were also images of what looked like humanoid beings doing various labors, from fighting invaders to building great structures._

_Then Aelita noticed blue lines appearing along the walls. They glowed with a strange and otherworldly light. The lines started to glow brighter the further she went down. The carvings were also getting more elaborate, showing more detail. Whisperings of old conversations drifted through the air:_

"_It is the Primes' directive to lead and guard Cybertron."_

"_The Primes lived by one rule: never destroy a planet with life."_

"_The Allspark is the very Spark of Cybertron, the very Fountain of Life for all our kind."_

"_Without more Energon, the hatchlings will keep dying."_

"_Why are we fighting to save the humans? They're a primitive and violent race."_

"_The Matrix of Leadership cannot be found, it can only be earned."_

_Eventually, Aelita came into a larger cavern. The entrance was held in place by a pair of statues, both emanating might. However, the one on the left seemed to embody heroism, justice, equality, and liberty. The one on the right seemed to embody domination, ruthlessness, cruelty, and tyranny. It was small wonder that they were wearing the Autobot and Decepticon insignias respectively._

_Just then, Aelita noticed a small monolith near the middle of the rune. There was only one symbol on it, and it was the same mysterious symbol she had used before: an eye within a triangle, connected to the corners with lines. However, the symbol was three-dimensional. It jutted out of the monolith in layers, just like the Key they used to have to press in the Carthage Sector. She walked over to the monolith and pressed in the pupil. The symbol slid back in and flatted against the monolith before it sank into the ground._

_Suddenly, the rest of the chamber started moving. And not moving like an elevator, but shifting like a gigantic puzzle. Parts of the walls and ceilings sank in or flipped around while the floor spun, rose, folded, joined, swiveled, or extended. Eventually, a construct arose from, or rather formed from, the floor. When everything stopped moving, the cavern was now the spitting image of the supercomputer's chamber except for being made of the same metallic rock and the glowing circuit lines and alien symbols covering everything._

_Before Aelita could begin to take in the strangeness of it all, the supercomputer lit up and a pillar of light appeared on the top. Within the light appeared the core of Lyoko, a map of the virtual world surrounded by three transparent spinning cubes. The cubes suddenly slowed down before two of them disappeared. The last one stopped spinning before it became covered with metal. Within seconds, the core of Lyoko had become a metal cube covered with the alien writing. Then the cube seemed to open up slightly before folding it on itself and tilting as it did. Pretty soon, it had compacted itself into a metal construct that was shaped somewhat like a wavy line. Then the wavy line started spinning like a propeller, forming a circle of light around it. Then it started spinning vertically and horizontally, creating a sphere of light which then gained a honeycomb pattern._

_The sphere shot a pair of beams to the two statues, right at the insignia on them. Their eyes lit up as they started forming domed-shaped shields around them, red for the Autobot and purple for the Decepticon. The shields grew until they overlapped at the area Aelita stood in._

_Suddenly, the pillar of light and the sphere in it faded away. The Eye of XANA on the supercomputer lit up before firing three beams, one at Aelita and the others at the statue. The one shooting at Aelita was stopped by the doubly-thick shields around her, which kept it completely at bay. However, the shields around the statue started to falter under the barrage. Eventually, the beam managed to shatter the purple shield and hit the Decepticon statue, which shattered upon impact. With the loss of the purple shield, the beam aimed at Aelita was able to press in more. Not long after that, the beam pointed at the Autobot statue broke through and destroyed the statue. Aelita only had time to scream before the beam could hit her._

…

Aelita woke up with a start and a partial scream. She gasped as her heartbeat went down from the seemingly near-brush with death. She looked around and saw that she was still in her dorm. _'It was just a dream, it was just a dream,'_ she thought to herself. But she had a very strong feeling that was no ordinary dream she had. She didn't understand all of it, but she suspected there was a message embedded in it.

…

"And right before the beam could hit me, I woke up," said Aelita.

"Pretty vivid nightmare you had there," said Odd. Aelita had called the rest of the gang together as soon as she could. Fortunately, it was a Saturday so they didn't have classes to attend to. They were currently at the pavilion outside Jeremie and Aelita's college.

"That's just it, I don't think it was only a dream," said Aelita.

"What? You think it was a flashback?" asked Yumi.

"I think I can safely bet it's not any place you've ever been too," said Ulrich.

"No, definitely not a memory," said Aelita, "More like…a vision."

"So you got a sneak-peek into the future," said Odd, "Kinda like I used to have with Lyoko."

"Not quite," said Aelita, "I don't think it was an exact picture from the future, more symbolic."

"By why have them now?" asked Jeremie, "XANA's been gone for years now. Why start dreaming of possible attacks?"

"I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the Transformers," said Aelita, "Those other images besides the Core. I'm placing a big bet on it, but I'm pretty sure those were Cybertronian."

"So what? You're a robot in disguise?" asked Odd. The others gave him an odd look. "What? Like you have anything less improbable?"

"We've established a long time ago that Aelita's not an artificial being," said Jeremie, "She's not an AI and definitely not a robot. She's all organic."

"Whatever's going on, I hope it doesn't mean starting the supercomputer madness all over again," said Yumi, "We can't be at the factory all the time now, and I frankly prefer not to have to be beamed around cyberspace. We were just lucky enough to put it behind us last time." Aelita gave Yumi an annoyed look. "Er, well, maybe not that lucky," said Yumi.

"Anyways, I don't think we should be jumping to any conclusions," said Ulrich, "XANA and Decepticons are two completely different things. I say we don't do anything unless the Cons do something directly involved with the supercomputer."

"But what if they still come after us?" asked Aelita, "The Decepticons found me in class."

"And those thugs were definitely after us specifically," said Odd.

"Ulrich's right," said Jeremie, "The supercomputer's not something to be taken lightly. We worked hard to shut it down and had to pay a lot to do that. So unless something comes up, we keep away from the supercomputer, physically and conversationally."

"But what if the Autobots start coming after us?" asked Yumi.

"The Autobots are the good guys, remember?" said Odd, "They wouldn't be trying to hunt us down unless we did something wrong. Besides, what're the chances of them ever hearing about the factory?"

…

Suddenly, an SUV pulled into the parking lot outside the college. And it was not just a sporty gas-guzzler, but a military issue vehicle. The NEST logo on the side emphasized the importance of it even more. As soon as it had the SUV was parked, the driver and passenger door opened and a young man and woman climbed out. Their uniforms showed that they were with the Royal Marines, but the NEST patch showed their transfer. Their black hair and similar facial features revealed that they were siblings.

"You sure this is the place?" asked the man.

The woman opened a file and looked at it. "Yep, let's find them before we get too much attention."

As they approached the college, the man said, "This is going to be difficult to explain to the dean here. Besides, there's a good chance they're not here. And then we'll have to go to the other colleges and-"

"Not as complicated as you think," said the woman, pointing at the gang at the pavilion.

The man stared for a moment and said, "No way we're that lucky."

"Ok, remember, we don't want to spook them. Stay professional, but friendly," said the woman.

"Right," said the man before they walked forward.

…

The gang was about to leave when they heard someone approaching. They looked up to see a pair of NEST officers. "Hi there," said the man. The gang gave a startled cry and nearly fell backwards. The woman glared at him and he said, "What? All I said was 'hi'."

The woman sighed and held up a badge, "Privates Matthew and Chloe Lynch, NEST agents, British Division. We wonder if we can borrow a few minutes of your time and-"

"I know nothing about Stonehenge!" shouted Ulrich.

Everyone paused and looked at Ulrich. "Stonehenge?" asked Yumi.

"Uh, sorry," said Ulrich, looking embarrassed, "I have no idea why I said that."

Chloe blinked and said, "Well, anyways, we have a few questions we need to ask."

"Uh, don't we have a right to a lawyer or something?" asked Odd.

"This isn't an arrest, it's just a bit of…information-gathering," said Matthew.

"We aren't here to cause trouble, we're here to prevent it," said Chloe.

"So why come to us?" asked Aelita.

"If our intelligence at HQ is right, you would probably know the answer already," said Chloe.

"I'm pretty sure the Autobots have no time to question a couple of college kids," said Ulrich.

"We know otherwise," said Matthew, "Autobots Drift, Jolt, Skids, and Mudflap all inform us that you have been involved in several incidents of…interesting circumstances."

"Er, can we talk about this somewhere else?" asked Aelita, "Somewhere more private?"

"Of course," said Chloe, "You really don't have to be so nervous. We're just ordinary Joes. We can be less formal."

"In that case, I have a question," said Odd.

"What's that?" asked Chloe.

Odd was suddenly at her side, "When are you off duty?"

Chloe frowned and the next thing Odd knew, he was on the ground with stinging cheeks and a throbbed head. "Not that informal," said Chloe.

"Shouldn't have done that," said Matthew, "My sis has a mean temper."

"So noted," said Odd, "Anybody have a Tylenol?"

…

Quite fortunately, Matt and Chloe had thought ahead and had secured a more private spot to converse. Of course, the spot was not very impressive. "The groundskeeper's tool shed?" asked Odd, "Are you guys serious?"

"What? You expected a corner office in a skyscraper?" asked Matt, "We're soldiers, not fancy-pancy business people."

"I suppose it's better than getting into their car and driving who knows where," said Aelita.

"We're not like that," said Chloe, "We're the good guys."

"Pardon me if I feel doubtful," said Aelita.

Chloe sighed and said, "Had a feeling it would be like this. Look, we don't want to make trouble for you guys, but you may be more involved than you think."

"More involved in what?" asked Jeremie.

"That's what we're trying to find out," said Matt before opening the door.

They had managed to clear a space in the middle of the shed and put up a table and some chairs. Surprisingly, there was someone already sitting there. "Uh, hi guys," said William.

"You!" snapped Yumi, "You rat us out!"

"Actually, Private Dunbar's being questioned as much as you five," said Matt, "And he didn't rat you out, we knew he was connected to you with that business at the museum."

"Hey, we weren't looking for Decepticons," said Ulrich, "We just stumbled across one."

"Not surprising," said Chloe, "But your student records indicate that you lot have had some sort of private club thing going on back at Kadic Academy. We don't know that club was about, but we're following any lead we can."

Yumi still glared at William and said, "I bet he gave you plenty more leads."

William was about to protest when Matt said, "I thought this was going to be an issue. This is why I took the liberty of recording our entire conversation with Private Dunbar before."

Chloe looked at Matt and said, "That was actually pretty clever."

"Don't sound so surprised," said Matt before taking out a tape recorder and pushing the play button. The tape recorder was placed on the table and everyone sat around it as it started playing.

Matt's voice was heard first, _"Private Dunbar, thanks for allowing us a moment of your time to speak with you."_

"_Well, I can't really say no to superior officers, can I?"_ said William's voice, _"I hope this doesn't take too long, I'm supposed to be on the obstacle course today."_

"_Oh, you don't have to worry about that,"_ said Chloe's voice, _"As a matter of fact, you have the whole day off. Consider an advanced payment for our brief visit."_

"_Nice training facility here, good place for beginners,"_ said Matt, _"But this is just a playground compared to what's at NEST. You know, we're always looking for new recruits. You may fit in. Something tells me you're 'best of the best' material."_

"_What's the catch?" _said William's voice skeptically.

"_What catch?"_ asked Matt's voice innocently.

"_Don't give me that. You really think I'd believe that a pair of NEST operatives would just waltz into a military training facility and pick some private, a specific private no less, and offer him a position at NEST? I may be a rookie here, but I can smell a bribe a mile away. Let's just have it out in the open, no semantics."_

There was a sigh before Chloe's voice said, _"Fine. You were present at the History Museum in Paris when the Decepticon named Bludgeon revealed itself, correct?"_

"_I was nearly stepped on by a samurai tank bot if that's that you're asking,"_ said William's voice.

"_We have a few sources that said you were right there when Bludgeon became active. You wouldn't happen to have been the one to see through his disguise, were you?"_

"_No, that was…someone else_," said William's voice.

"_Who in particular then? Did you know her, or him?"_ asked Matt's voice.

"_If your sources could tell you I was there, I'm sure they can tell you who was also there,"_ said William's voice, _"I thought we agreed on no wordplay."_

"_Sharp kid,"_ said Chloe's voice, _"Ok, William, can I call you that? If you had been watching the news lately, you'll know that you weren't the only one involved in Cybertronian-related incidents in Paris lately. The day after the Bludgeon incident, a pair of Decepticons tried to kidnap a Ms. Aelita Stones. Fortunately, one of our Autobots was in the area and was able to rescue and dispose of one of the Decepticons. And yesterday, three college students, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and Odd Della Robia, were all attacked by some street thugs who were apparently paid to specifically kidnap them. Fortunately, two more of our Bots were in the area and came to the rescue. However, the leader possessed some sort of advanced weapon that was able to freeze the two of them. He and his men were captured and arrested, but their possession of such advanced technology capable of paralyzing alien robots is rather disconcerting. We've done a background check on all of you and it appears you were a very close-knit group back at your junior high, Kadic Academy."_

There was a very long pause before William finally asked, _"What do you want of me?"_

"_It's quite clear that someone's taken a very close interest in you six,"_ said Matt's voice, _"It may only be because of you guys stirring Bludgeon, but we know that the Decepticons at least want you. And there are known to be very persistent in trying to get something that they want. The Autobots were there to thwart them before, but it's practically guaranteed that they'll try to do it again. And the Autobots won't always be there to protect you, not unless we placed you lot under protective custody back at NEST."_

"_What we're trying to say is that we want to know if there's anything that could have drawn their attention to you besides Bludgeon,"_ said Chloe, _"Perhaps something back in junior high that was significant enough to intrigue them. We don't if you guys have some big secret, but we've got a pretty good hunch that you do. Would you care to enlighten us about it?"_

There was an even longer paused before William's voice was heard again, _"I can't._"

"_Listen, kid, I know it's hard to give up a secret you've held onto so long, but this is important,"_ said Matt's voice.

"_Even if I'm willing to tell you guys, and I'm not so certain about it, it's not my secret to tell. I can't break their trust,"_ said William's voice.

There was another paused before Matt said, _"Figures. Chloe, you have the address for those other kids' colleges?"_

"_Came with the assignment,"_ said Chloe.

"_Good. Private Dunbar, you'll be coming with us. We're going to have a little class reunion,_" said Matt's voice.

"_But you said…_" said William's voice.

Matt cut him off, _"I know what I said. I said we weren't going to harass you, and we're not. We were going to talk with your friends later. But since it's a big group secret, we're going to have to talk with all of you at once. We won't pull any tricks, but you're all going to hear us out. I don't want to force you to come along, but I am authorized to use necessary force."_

There was another pause before William said, _"It's that serious?"_

"_When there's Decepticons concerned, it's always dead serious,"_ said Chloe.

There was a sigh before William said, _"Fine, I'll come with you. But don't expect me to be try to sway the others for you."_

"_Glad we have an understanding,"_ said Matt, _"Grab your bag and let's go._"

Matt hit the stop button and said, "Now that we've all heard that, I think we can cut to the chase. We don't know for sure if there's a big secret thing that happened at Kadic Academy, but we need to know if there is."

"The Decepticons are bound to want to know as well," said Chloe, "They will go to extreme lengths if they think it's that important. Lives could possibly be in the balance."

"If you guys don't want to say anything, you don't have to. You're free to go," said Matt, "We just want to prevent as little loss of innocent life as possible. I'm sure you can understand."

There was a long pause before the kids, one by one, turned to look at Aelita. She was the one most intimately connected to all this. Eventually, she said, "We need a minute to talk."

"Sure, fine, talk among yourselves, we're not even here," said Chloe.

The six of them huddled together on the other side of the shed, making sure to keep their voices low. "Ok, first off, William, sorry for suspecting you," said Yumi.

"It's ok," said William, "I would expect if from me too. However, I do feel that we ought to tell NEST about the supercomputer."

"Gee, thanks for reassuring you're on our side," said Odd.

"Actually, I agree with him," said Yumi.

"You're kidding," said Ulrich.

"You remember that time XANA was going to make that nuclear power plant explode?" asked Yumi.

"He what?" asked William.

"If was before you even came to Kadic," said Jeremie, "You wouldn't know anyways."

"Well, you remember how we weren't sure we could stop XANA in time and that we decided to inform the authorities?" asked Yumi.

"One time only," said Odd, "We got a lot more experienced with deactivating towers since then."

"Still, suppose that the Decepticons somehow accessed Lyoko," said Yumi, "They could launch an attack we may be unable to counter in time before someone gets killed."

"She raises a good point," said William, "NEST could use a computer like this. Don't you think we owe the Autobots some help after they helped us and the world?"

"Hey, we found the supercomputer fair and square," said Odd, "It's ours to do with as we like. Even if we haven't used it for six years now."

"We can't be sure that it'll remain safe," said Ulrich, "What if the 'Cons slip through NEST's defenses and accesses it? Or someone at NEST wanted to use it for themselves?"

"That could be why we should give it to NEST," said Jeremie, "The supercomputer will be safer at their base then in the factory."

"But it's my father's invention," said Aelita, "We can't just give it away. It belongs to m…to us."

"I think we need to have a vote on it," said Yumi, "All for telling NEST about the supercomputer?" She, William, and Jeremie raised their hands. "And against?" Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita raised theirs.

"Oh great," said Odd, "Nothing beats a stalemate."

"Ok, this is gonna take more sorting out that I thought," said Jeremie.

"We don't have a lot of time for sorting this out," said Ulrich.

"Ok, time for compromising," said William, "We all agree that the Decepticons will come after the supercomputer at some point, right?"

"We don't know that for sure," said Aelita.

"In any event, the supercomputer will not likely to be kept a secret forever, right?" said William.

"Oh sure," said Odd sarcastically, "We'll just take it out on a parade and tell everyone everything about it and us."

"No," said Jeremie, "We're not going to make the supercomputer public knowledge. We need to keep it low key."

"The Autobots aren't really low key," said Ulrich.

"Not their fault," said Yumi, "The Decepticons revealed themselves first. The Autobots did a pretty good job at keeping their existence secret."

"But we can't just tell them all," said Odd.

"You're right, we need as little many people to know as possible until we're certain if its security is compromised," said Jeremie, "We shouldn't be speaking to mere foot soldiers about this. No offense, William."

"None taken, and I agree," said William, "We ought to talk to one of their higher-ups, one of the top officers. Just telling Matt and Chloe would be too risky."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" asked Ulrich, "Send them a letter?"

"We have Matt and Chloe take us somewhere so we can meet with them," said Jeremie, "We will discuss how great the threat could be, how dangerous it would be for us to not be involved, and the consequences of letting the Decepticons claim, without specifying, a piece of technology that has unusual properties. After that, we can decide whether it's worth the risk telling them or not. Can we all agree to that?"

There was a pause while the group thought. Then William said, "I can agree to that."

"Cautious enough," said Ulrich.

"We'll see afterwards," said Yumi.

"As long as we don't have to tell them right away," said Odd.

Aelita took longer than the others. "Well, Aelita?" asked Jeremie, "It is your inheritance after all."

Aelita winced a little at that. Jeremie was right, the supercomputer did belong to her by right since her father…could no longer be on Earth. But it felt more like inheriting the urn of a cremated family member. "We can talk, but we're not deciding now," said Aelita.

"Ok then," said Jeremie before turning to the Lynch siblings and saying, "Ok, we're going to consider talking, but we'd feel more comfortable if we met with someone with more authority. Somewhere that wouldn't be exposed or too much to their advantage."

"That's a lot to ask," said Matt.

"It may or may not be a big thing that we have that could affect the balance of power a lot," said Odd.

Matt and Chloe looked at each other for a second before Chloe said, "Well, we need to call in. We'll see what we can arrange, but-"

Suddenly, the sound of jet engines flying overhead was heard, and it was not some airline carrying passengers and it sounded far too close. Matt and Chloe rushed towards the window and looked out. "Oh boy," said Matt.

The group hurried to the window and looked out. A pair of fighter jets was flying in the sky not too far away. They were leaving large trails of exhaust in their wake as the rose, fell, turned, and rolled. "Just a pair of jets, big deal," said Odd.

"Those aren't just jets," said Chloe, "Those are F-22 Raptors."

"So? Just some pilots doing an exercise," said Yumi.

"How many Raptors do you think exist?" asked Matt.

"Uh, hundreds?"

"Not even close," said Matt, "There are less than two hundred and they are very expensive to make. The US Air Force wouldn't just let their pilots cruise their jets anywhere. Besides, this is a civilian area and military aircraft are not permitted to practice out here."

"You mean those guys are Transformers?" asked Ulrich.

"Most likely Decepticons," said Chloe, "We don't have any flying Autobots on our side right now, let alone one that can become an F-22. Not to mention the Raptor's becoming a pretty popular model among the 'Cons, particularly since Starscream uses that form."

"You think one of those could be Starscream?" asked William.

"I don't know," said Matt, "It's impossible to tell from here."

"What are they writing?" asked Odd. The jets were skywriting very strange characters in the sky. It looked like some sort of language, but it was incomprehensible.

"Cybertronic," said Chloe, "The Autobots use those symbols all the time."

"Then what does it say?" asked Yumi.

Matt shrugged, "Eat at Joe's?"

Aelita, however, was studying the writing very hard. As she stared, it didn't seem like gibberish to her. Her mind seemed to descramble the odd letters and turn them into a more recognizable language. "It's a message," she said, "For the Autobots or their allies. They want to exchange words in the park, peacefully."

The others stared at her. "How the hell would you know?" asked Chloe.

Aelita shrugged and said, "I don't really know myself. That's something we're going to discuss with your higher officer."

The Lynches stared at Aelita for a minute before Matt said, "Fine, we're the closest so we better answer. I hope you're not misreading. If things go south, you guys run, understand?"

"Can't we just stay here and you negotiate with them?" asked Odd. His friends gave him a disapproving look. "What? We don't all have to be in danger."

"Unfortunately, not really an option," said Chloe, "You guys have to stick with us, orders from the top. Just keep out of the way."

…

The NEST car quickly drove over to the park. Quite fortunately, there weren't any civilians in the area, mostly driven off by the presence of the two fighter jets that were circling one spot. They seemed to slow down a bit when the SUV pulled up and parked near where they were circling. Matt and Chloe stepped out, with the gang hanging back, but still watching. The Lynches walked forwards and Matt shouted, "Hello, we are Privates Matthew and Chloe Lynch from NEST, we're here to talk!"

The two raptors seemed to hover for a second before they dropped down, shifting as they went. When they landed, they had become a pair of tall robots. They looked very similar to each other, the main differences being that one was mainly purple in color while the other was blue.

"Great," said Chloe to the gang, "It's Skywarp and Thundercracker, Starscream's left and right-hand bots."

The blue one looked down at Matt and said, "You presume much to think you can converse with us, meat puppet."

"Your message did say you wanted to speak with a NEST representative and that you meant to talk peacefully," said Matt.

The two seemed somewhat surprised, if not by their facial expressions, then by their stances. "How do you know our language so well?" demanded the purple one.

"I could tell you, but I don't think that's why you wanted to speak with us," said Chloe.

The two Decepticons looked irritated before the blue one turned to his companion and said, "Get on with it, Skywarp. I don't want to have to deal with these creatures as long as I can."

The purple one nodded and said, "My sentiments exactly, Thundercracker." He turned to the humans and said, "Our message is a simple one, one that even your simplistic brains are capable of processing and delivering to the Autobots: we want Soundwave back."

There was a pause before Chloe said, "I'm sorry?"

"You are sorry, a sorry piece of-" started Thundercracker before holding himself back and saying, "We're not here to argue with flesh creatures, we're just here to pass on the message."

"How can you be so sure he's missing?" asked Matt.

"As if you didn't know," said Skywarp, "Soundwave has been keeping us up on regular updates, particularly with his most recent investigation involving… Never you mind, but approximately three of your Earth days ago, his transmissions ended. No one's seen or heard from him since."

"Megatron will not take lightly that you've abducted one of his highest officers," said Thundercracker.

"You had best give him up before things get messy," said Skywarp before the two of them transformed back into F-22s and flew off.

"Well, that was interesting," said Ulrich.

"Are all Decepticons that snobbish?" asked Yumi.

"No," said Matt, "Quite a few of them have worse manners than those two. But they all have equivalently the same low appreciation of humanity."

"Still, they could have requested their comrade back in a more civil way," said Jeremie.

"Wouldn't have done them any good either way," said Chloe.

"You're not going to give them back their comrade?" asked William.

"We can't because we don't even have him and we wouldn't have been able to capture him," said Matt.

"Why's that?" asked Ulrich.

"Soundwave is their communication officer, their Chief Communication Officer," said Matt, "He's the grand spymaster for the Decepticons. He's the main reason why we need to be so hush-hush about the Autobot/Decepticon war in public."

"Sounds like he's very good at his job," said Yumi.

"You don't know the half of it," said Chloe, "Soundwave's alternate form is a satellite. He hangs up high in Earth's orbit to eavesdrop on virtually everyone on the planet. As much as we'd love to take him down, we don't have the means to do so."

"Don't you have some satellite weapons that could-" started Jeremie.

"If we did, and that's highly classified, they're aimed at the Earth, not at other things in orbit," said Matt, "Soundwave can easily avoid any of our attempts to shoot him down. The only way we could nail him was if he came down into the atmosphere and we would know if he did."

"The Autobots could have gone up and got him," said Odd.

"It's not that simple," said Chloe, "I'm no expert on the matter, but apparently some Cybertronians are better adapting for flight than others. They could potentially go into their reentry form, but I'm pretty sure there are limitations to that. Anyways, none of the Autobots on Earth are really capable of flying so they couldn't have taken Soundwave."

"You sure those two were telling the truth?" asked Aelita, "They are called Decepticons, as in deception."

"Possibly, but those two operate under Starscream's command," said Matt, "I'm sure that Megatron would not appreciate Starscream letting his minions spread false rumors about Soundwave. And I doubt that Starscream himself would have taken down Soundwave. Starscream's no amateur, but Soundwave's one of Megatron's top lieutenants and that requires being very capable in combat. So we have to assume that the Decepticons truly don't know where Soundwave is now."

"In any case, we still need to see what we can do about arranging you guys a meeting," said Chloe, "This could take a while, probably won't be ready until tomorrow. Not to mention we need to report this new development. So you guys better get packed for a road trip tomorrow."

"And here I thought that it was going to be a boring weekend," said Odd.

…

**Decepticon Base,**

**Undisclosed Location**

The blue and purple Raptors soared through the air before they came to the landing pad. Awaiting them was their superior, Air Commander Starscream. The two of them transformed and landed gracefully on the landing pad. "The message has been delivered?" asked Starscream.

"We gave it to some of their organic companions, but I think the Autobots will receive it," said Thundercracker.

Starscream nodded and said, "Good, Soundwave is far too valuable to our cause to lose. We must secure him as soon as possible."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?" requested Skywarp.

There was a pause before Starscream said, "Tell me what's on your mind."

"Why did we bother going through all the trouble to send the Autobots an empty threat?" asked Skywarp, "We know the Autobots and their humans couldn't have been able to capture one like Soundwave."

"Soundwave's too loyal to Megatron to consider going maverick, not unless it was in all the Decepticons' best interests," said Thundercracker, "He wouldn't have dropped off the map like that."

"Very good points," said Starscream, "Of course, I already had consider them before you told me so. We know Soundwave could not have been taken by the Autobots, no Decepticons are currently in a position and harbor enough of a grudge to dispose of Soundwave in an inconspicuous manner, and Soundwave would not cut off communications with us for an overly-extended period, particularly with Megatron. Therefore, I have theorized that we may be dealing with an opposition that has remained unknown to us before."

Skywarp and Thundercracker exchanged looks and Thundercracker asked, "Are you sure about this?"

"Not entirely," said Starscream, "But it's not completely illogical. I have a good feeling it's involved with the research that Soundwave has been doing lately."

"So why tell the Autobots?" asked Skywarp, "They'll grow bolder when they know that Soundwave isn't watching them."

"Soundwave isn't the only one who learns through listening," said Starscream, "Rumors have been rising of some uncommon interest on that particular area of Earth for whatever reason. And the ones who are interested may or may not be against the Decepticons as much as the Autobots. There was that matter with that human group, what was it, the Initiative, which Soundwave investigated before. If it's like that, then a warning may be needed just in case."

"In case of what?" asked Thundercracker.

"That we may be dealing with another three-way struggle," said Starscream.

"How can you be sure that this third side will be any worse than the Initiative?" asked Skywarp.

"I'm not," said Starscream, "But if the rumors are true, we may see more direct action very soon."

* * *

There's another chapter, this one with quite a bit of mystery. For starters, a rather intriguing dream for Aelita. Then there's NEST's growing interest in the gang. And last, but definitely not least, Soundwave's disappearance. The implications are quite sizeable.

With the dream, I picked up a few quotes from the comics and movies, but a few I added in myself. The Initiative had appeared in a comic arc that takes place after Revenge of the Fallen. Skywarp and Thundercracker have also appeared in comics before and are, as is traditional, working right under Starscream's command. Yumi's reference goes back to the second episode of the first season of Code Lyoko. And of course, Matthew and Chloe Lynch belong to my friend largefish8 AKA Homeward. Mostly a cameo appearance, don't expect them to appear all the time.

The next chapter will be very energetic, you do not want to miss it. Keep an eye out for it and please review.


	5. Enter the Dragon

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

**Chapter 5: Enter the Dragon**

There was a tension in the air of the shadowed room, the table once again occupied by the five men in the darkness while the monitor on the sixth side projected the voice of the sixth individual.

"The girl and her companions are soon going to be making direct contact with the Autobots. This has gone on for far too long."

"Sir, we've done everything we could to capture her…" said one of the men.

"Clearly you've not done enough," snapped the voice on the other end, "Your efforts are rapidly proving useless to accomplish this simple task."

"Sir, there's a limit to how much we can do without being exposed," said another man.

"Then it's time we stopped hiding," said the other voice, "We shall not cower in the shadows while our enemies get ever closer to ruining years of work."

"You're not saying that we assault them directly," said another man.

There was a pause before the monitor's voice said, "Not full-out, no. We shall expose ourselves all at once, but a concentrated offense is necessary. And since our human resources are proving increasingly inefficient, we shall move on to other means. Operative M has been briefed over everything of relevance, correct?"

"He's been in the hangar since early morning," said another man, "Fortunately, he's a very rapid learner."

"But there's still the issue about the girl. She shall be escorted by NEST soldiers. There's a good chance they'll have Autobots there as well," said another man in the shadows.

"Actually, we've not need to worry about that," said one who had not spoken yet, "We've acquired information that no Autobots are among them. It's just humans."

"Excellent," said the voice from the monitor, "Then Operative M shall deploy as soon as they're in open space. This time, there shall not be a failure."

…

The Lyoko gang had assembled at a public bus stop closer to the edge of Paris. It was decided for the best that the group try to remain as inconspicuous as possible, lest any Decepticons could be watching them. They had packed for what should be a two-day road trip, though they didn't feel quite so prepared themselves.

"You think I should wear a different shirt?" asked Odd.

"You're asking this now?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, first impressions are very important and I want to give them the right image the first time," said Odd, "This shirt seems more like 'I've got the skills to keep up', but I've got another that's more like 'confident'. Which do you think would go better?"

"Odd, we're going to be meeting alien robots. I don't think they would care what kind of statement your outfit makes," said Jeremie.

"Particularly since they don't really wear clothing," said Yumi, "They just have pieces of vehicle parts on them."

"I suppose so," said Odd, "Hey, Princess, how you holding up?"

"Oh, you know, just petrified with anxiety," said Aelita.

"Hey, there's nothing to worry about," said Yumi, "We'll just sit with the big bosses at NEST and discuss how bad things are before we tell them anything bigger than that."

"Right, we don't need to tell them anything yet," said Jeremie.

"But I get a feeling something bad is going to happen," said Aelita.

"The Autobots are good guys, remember?" said William.

"No, not about that, I mean about this trip," said Aelita.

"XANA's gone for good," said Ulrich, "He's not gonna attack."

"And we've got NEST watching us," said Yumi, "The Decepticons aren't going to make a move."

"Oh, speak of the devil," said William. He pointed at a trio of black SUV's that were approaching. They each had the NEST insignia on the sides of them. They drove around behind the bus stop before anyone could notice the insignias. The group grabbed their bags and headed back towards the cars.

When they got there, two of the SUV's had their side doors open and a few soldiers were standing at attention. Most notably, Matt and Chloe Lynch were also there. "All aboard the 9:30 express to Autobot Central," said Matt before getting punched in the arm by Chloe.

"You guys didn't come with Autobots?" asked Odd.

"Too conspicuous," said Chloe, "Soundwave might be out of action, but there are still plenty of spies."

"Besides, these cars are much better," said Matt, "For one thing, they don't talk back. Secondly, they're not radioactive."

There was a pause before Yumi said, "That was a joke right?"

"Sort of," said Matt.

"We'll be meeting up with some Autobots about two-thirds there," said Chloe, "That'll give us enough distance from heavily-populated area to avoid making a scene if something should happen."

"Define 'something'," said William.

"I think you guys can guess that," said Matt, "Now before we go, does anyone have to use the bathroom? Because the first person who says they need to go while we're driving gets booted out. Same applies to anyone who says 'are we there yet'."

"That was a joke too, right?" asked Odd.

"No, I am being very serious," said Matt.

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Don't mind him, he's a little crazy."

"We know how that feels," said Ulrich, giving Odd a meaningful glance.

"Oh sure, compare me to the nutty soldier, that's very considerate of you," said Odd sarcastically.

Despite a few minor complaints, mainly about leg space and snacks, the gang piled into the cars; Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd into one car and Ulrich, Yumi, and William into another. The three SUV's departed after that and started heading for the city limits.

…

Unbeknownst to the small convoy, a satellite was carefully watching their progress, and not one of NEST's satellites. It was sending a constant feed to another location where it was being monitored by two beings.

"According to our calculations, the vehicles will be in open space in approximately 1 hour. Once they're in a clear space, you shall swoop down and attack. Remember, we want the girl alive and her friends could be use as a failsafe, so no lethal force. You may cause as much collateral damage as you want, but do not eliminate any humans."

A feeling of great anger emanated from the second being.

"I know you would like to kill them all, but we can't risk the valued targets getting killed in the crossfire. Don't worry, as soon as we have what we want, you'll soon be able to slaughter all the humans you could want. But make this operation quick. We do not want any Autobots to show up. Now go."

…

Aelita was still a bit nervous about riding in the SUV with all these NEST soldiers. But as they drove out into the countryside, she started to relax a bit. The French countryside was quite beautiful as it went by. It almost took all the edge off of going to meet with alien robots.

"So when are we going to be meeting these Autobots?" asked Jeremie.

"We're almost halfway the meeting place," said Chloe, who was riding with them, "We'll have a pair of Autobots escorting us the last quarter there. They have to wait before joining us, so they won't attract unwanted attention.

"Seems sensible," said Jeremie.

"You mind if we listen to some music?" asked Odd.

"Sorry, radio's for communication purposes only," said Chloe.

"Just as well," said Aelita, "I don't think you would have liked Odd's taste in music anyways."

"You guys just keep finding new ways to mock me," said Odd in an annoyed tone.

"Considering how much you annoy everyone else, I'd say it's pretty even," said Jeremie.

Odd grumbled a bit before saying, "Anyone wanna play 'I Spy'?"

Chloe sighed and said, "Fine, but keep it down, will you?"

"Ok, I spy with my little eye something…shiny," said Odd.

Jeremie glanced around before saying, "Door handle?"

"Nope."

"Mirror?"

"Wrong."

Aelita glanced out the window and asked, "Jet?"

"Not even close," said Odd.

Chloe sighed and said, "It's my pistol."

"Hey, you cheated!" snapped Odd.

"Aelita, why did you say 'jet'?" asked Jeremie.

"I think I saw one out there," said Aelita.

"Where?" asked Jeremie, looking out the window.

"It's behind those clouds," said Aelita.

"I can't quite see it," said Jeremie.

"I'm sure I saw it," said Aelita.

"Er, you mean that one?" asked Odd, pointing out the window towards a winged shape that was soaring high above them.

"Yes, that's the plane," said Aelita.

Chloe frowned and pulled out her binoculars. She looked through them towards the aircraft. "That's not a plane," she said, "It's a UAV."

"What's that?" asked Odd.

"Unmanned Air Vehicle," said Jeremie, "They're drones built like planes used for reconnaissance."

"Right, but this one's also a UCAV, the 'C' standing for 'Combat'," said Chloe, "In particular, this is a MQ-9 Reaper, a really powerful machine with nasty missiles."

"What's it doing out here?" asked Odd.

"I don't know and I don't like it," said Chloe before picking up her radio and said, "This is Carpool A, we've spotted a UCAV Reaper within visual sight."

Matt's voice promptly replied and said, "Yeah, we just saw it. I don't suppose this is just a military test, is it?"

"In civilian territory? I don't think so," said Chloe.

"And NEST hasn't sent one to cover us, right?" said the voice from the other SUV's leader.

"Negative," said Chloe, "They can't spare UAVs to watch all of us, let alone a Reaper."

"I can't see any markings on it," said Matt, "Can't tell who it belongs to."

"Odds are it's the Cons'," said the other leader, "They probably can manipulate drones remotely if they want."

"Agreed," said Chloe, "Increase speed, we need to get to the rendezvous party. We don't to be caught by this thing when we can't fire back at us."

"Uh, too late for that," said Odd as something detached from the Reaper and started heading towards them. The flames at the end easily identified it.

"It fired a missile, invasive maneuvers," said Chloe. She turned to Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie and said, "Kids, now's the perfect time to show you why seatbelts are an essential feature with any vehicle." The three of them gulped and tightened their seatbelts.

The three SUVs spread out into separate lanes. As the missile got closer, they started to make more erratic movement. When the missile seemed like it was going to hit the one the kids weren't in, the SUV jackknifed to the right and barely remained on the road. The missile missed by only a few feet and blew a small crater into the pavement. The explosion rocked the SUV's nearly tipping them over. Fortunately, they managed to maintain their balance, but not without noticeable discomfort inside.

"Ooh, I hope this thing comes with barfbags," said Odd.

"Under the seats," said Chloe promptly, "We were lucky that time. That Reaper has at least three more missiles where that came from and you can bet the Decepticons won't miss every time."

"Don't you guys have anything to fight it with?" asked Jeremie.

"This is a Hummer, not an antiaircraft truck," said Chloe, "We just need to keep moving and try to avoid the other missiles until the Autobots can get here."

"How are the Autobots supposed to show up?" asked Odd, "They won't know we're in peril!"

"We switched on the silent alarm when the missile fired," said Chloe, pointing at a blinking like on the dashboard, "They'll receive our distress signal and come to meet us. Hopefully it'll be before that thing blasts us off the road."

The Reaper was flying around for another shot. Odd looked out the window as it got closer. Suddenly, something odd happened. A gun extended from the underside of it and started firing. The SUV's swerved around the projectiles, fortunately. But the gun didn't just lower from some holding bay, but it had been formed out of flipped-out parts of the undercarriage.

"Uh, guys," said Odd, "I don't think this thing's controlled by the Decepticons."

"What are you talking about? It's clearly firing at us," said Jeremie.

"No, I mean this thing _is_ a Decepticon!" said Odd.

"It is?" asked Aelita.

"That makes sense," said Chloe, "Reapers are only equipped with missiles, they don't strafe targets. Besides, Transformers can take on any mechanical form they want, size and abilities permitting."

"Oh great," said Odd sarcastically, "Now we get to take on a Decepticon without any way of fighting back."

"We just need to hold out until the Autobots can get here," said Jeremie.

Just then, the Reaper fired another missile, but this time, not at the cars. He shot ahead, blowing out a large section of the road. The SUV's had to screech to a halt to avoid falling into the crater. "Ok, looks like we have to make a stand here," said Chloe, "You kids stay in the car. We've got sabot rounds in our guns. We'll put a couple of dents in that contraption."

"You couldn't have shot it while it was shooting at us?" asked Odd.

"You ever try to fire a gun while moving in a vehicle going 70 mph?" asked Chloe, "Besides, flying targets aren't easy to hit and this guy's keeping it at long range."

"Not for long," said Aelita, pointing ahead.

The Reaper was flying low, parallel with the road ahead. If it were anything else, it would have looked like it was going to land. Instead, panels and parts started to flip, twist, swivel, and unhinge. The tail end extended with a fair section of the back, the rear fins moving closer to the front. The backside of the undercarriage unfolded into four pairs of legs, each resembled a bit like a wasp's leg only ending with servos that had talons very much like that of a predatory bird. The wings folded slightly and positioned themselves further onto the back. The front end of the UAV separated into three parts. The bottom half of it split into two, forming limbs that looked more versatile than the other four. The top half angled back and curled, a pair of orange eyes and a mouth full of metal fangs appearing underneath the sliding panels. By the time it was almost upon them, the Reaper drone was now a very striking resemblance to a six-legged winged dragon, the accompanying roar boosting the likeness very much.

The humans were shocked by the rather unexpected 'robot mode' of the Reaper and didn't have time to retaliate before the dragon bot landed. With a savage snarl, it tore the roof off of the SUV that didn't have the kids in there. It took one glance in there before pushing it aside. Fortunately, the SUV landed on its side and the soldiers in it were able to climb out the side that was now facing up. Then the dragon tore off the roof of the SUV that Matt, Ulrich, Yumi, and William were in. Instead of tossing it aside, it grabbed at the car with the claws on one of its middle legs. Then it turned to the last SUV and tore its roof off.

The image of looking up through the gaping hole of the SUV's former roof was forever burned into Aelita's memory. It was just because she was looking up at a large alien robot that looked like a dragon. It wasn't because of its several limbs, its glaring optics, the muzzle full of razor-like fangs, or the distinctive crest on its head, though those all contributed to the image. But what really stood out to her was the symbol emblazoned on its chest.

It was basically a circle within a circle but both circles were broken apart at certain points. The outer circle also had three spikes jutting out from the bottom, the middle spike was much longer than the other two and separated the bottom half of the ring in two. Two parts of the outer circle on the top had two empty lines in them. They were separated by a fourth spike that had an empty triangle in it. The inner circle was simply divided by a long thin rhombus. The entire symbol had the look of an eye with a slit pupil.

As Aelita was frozen in fright, the dragon bot looked over the passengers in the car until it spotted her. As soon as its gaze met hers, the creature gave a triumphant growl before reaching for her.

Suddenly, its side was hit by several sabot rounds from the soldiers who had climbed out of the overturned SUV. The dragon bot winced and turned towards its attackers. It roared angrily before a nozzle extended from its mouth. There was a slight hiss before bright orange flames started pouring out at them. The soldiers doubled back to get away from the inferno.

By then, the soldiers had come out of the other vehicles and were turning their weapons on the dragon bot. The dragon bot snarled with fury as it swiped one leg, sending a few soldiers sprawling. However, the other soldiers kept firing. Surprisingly, the sabot rounds weren't doing as much damage as with other Decepticons. Sure, the sabot rounds were causing some injuries, but they were mere flesh wounds, so to speak.

The gang, meanwhile, had gotten out of the SUVs and hid behind the one furthest from the dragon bot. "Ok, this road trip is officially not fun anymore," said Odd.

"For once, I completely agree with you," said Ulrich.

"I didn't know Decepticons were that vicious," said William, "I mean, I've heard the stories. But I didn't really get it until now."

Just then, Matt came back, firing some sabot rounds back as he went. "You guys ok?" he asked.

"We're fine," said Yumi.

"Good," said Matt, "We're lucky no one's got killed yet."

"No, we're not," said Aelita, "That this is holding back. It doesn't want to kill anyone."

"Because you could get caught in the crossfire," said Jeremie.

"Exactly," said Aelita.

"Why are we always attracting the wrong attention?" said Odd before turning to Matt and asking, "Don't you guys have training to deal with Decepticons."

"Sorry, dragonslaying isn't part of the basic training," said Matt with a tad of sarcasm.

Just then, Chloe was thrown back and slammed into Matt, sending the siblings tumbling. Then the dragon bot stepped over the SUV's and glared down at them. It reached down one servo to grab all the gang.

Suddenly, there was the sound of something whistling through the air. The dragon looked up just in time to see an aircraft slam into him. The dragon bot was lifted off its feet and thrown dozens of yards away. Fortunately, the gang had avoided the monster's servos. They looked over, expecting to see a smoldering wreck of the aircraft that had saved them, but instead saw the flying wing drone still flying.

"Not another UAV Decepticon," groaned Chloe as she got up.

"A BAE Raven no less," said Matt as he got up.

The dragon bot shook his head as it got back. It spotted the Raven drone and roared at it. The Raven responded by transforming, wings folding in, arms folding out, legs extending from the undercarriage, until it assumed its robot mode, which was relatively smaller than its opponent's. The Predator bot started lashing its tail, the propeller at the end now spinning at a very fast speed. In response, the Raven bot unsheathed a pair of tomahawk-like weapons from its wings. The two robots charged at each other until they met, both of them slashing, smashing, and smacking at their opponent.

The humans watched this epic brawl with fascination. "Ok, who are we rooting for?" asked Odd.

"I don't know," said Matt.

An approaching rumble got Chloe's attention. She looked up the road and said, "Looks like you won't have to pick. Here comes the cavalry."

The group turned to look, seeing a pair of pickup trucks thundering towards them. One pickup was large and black with its right headlight having a noticeable crack on it. The other was smaller and blue, but it was heavily modified with armor plating, a pair of cannons mounted on top of its cab, and a large plow in the front.

By that point, the two UAV bots had taken to the air, colliding and swiping at each other. The blue pickup aimed its cannons at them and fired. Its shells hit both of them, knocking them down. They barely managed to control their flight before they hit the ground. By then, both trucks had transformed to robot mode, jumped over the crater, and were aiming their cannons. The black pickup was noticeably bulkier, with a scar over his right optic and a pair of very impressive-looking cannons attached to his forearms. The blue pickup was smaller, holding his cannons like rifles, with goggle-like structures on his forehead.

The UAV bots glared back at the pickup bots, however, they did not attack. The dragon bot looked around at the several human soldiers with sabot round-armed weapons, its rival beside it, and the two Autobots pointing cannons at it. It gave a roar of rage and frustration before smacking the Raven bot away and blasting the two Autobots with fire. Then it transformed back into a Reaper drone and took off. It quickly disappeared from sight long before its enemies could fire at it.

The Raven bot got back and glanced back at the kids, particularly Aelita. Then it jumped up, transformed into its vehicle mode and flew away in a different direction.

The two Autobots had recovered their vision shortly after that. The black one glanced around and said, "Slag, those cowards ran off."

"Just like a Decepticon," agreed the blue one.

"Right," said the black one, "Nice shot back there, Scattorshot."

"It was my pleasure," said Scattorshot, "Particularly since Skystalker was there."

"I was wondering when that yellow-bellied prop job would show up again," said the black Autobot.

Just then, Matt called, "Uh, guys, mind giving a hand?"

The two Autobots looked around and noticed the damaged SUV's. "Eh, it's hardly the worse collateral damage I've ever seen," said Scattorshot.

"But we've got these scrapheaps to haul back," said the black one, "Of all the times for Longarm to be back at base."

"Hey, we still need a ride," pointed out Matt.

"I can see that," said the black one, "But we can't carry everyone, even if you get in the back."

While the NEST members talked, the gang also discussed what happened. "Ok, that was pretty scary at first, but that was probably one of the most awesome things I've ever seen," said Odd.

"Odd, we were nearly killed," said Yumi.

"No, it was only trying to capture Aelita," said William. He turned to her and asked, "Are you alright?"

"We have to tell them," said Aelita.

"Pardon?" asked Ulrich.

"The supercomputer, Lyoko, everything," said Aelita, "Everything we know."

"Whoa, whoa," said Odd, "I know that was pretty traumatic, but there's no reason to completely flip out. I mean, having a Decepticon try to kidnap is nothing to sneeze at but-"

"It wasn't a Decepticon," said Aelita, "At least not an ordinary one."

"How could you know?" asked Jeremie.

"Didn't you see its chest?" asked Aelita.

"Uh, not really," said Odd, "I was more concentrated on its head."

"Er, the head did grab more attention," said Jeremie.

"It was wearing XANA's symbol," said Aelita.

There was a long moment of silence before Yumi asked, "Are you sure?"

"Well, it was altered, but the resemblance is unmistakable," said Aelita, "Whatever that thing was or wherever it came from, it's related to XANA."

"But XANA' s been destroyed for years," said Yumi.

"But who knows what he left behind," said William.

There was another long pause before Ulrich said, "If Aelita really thinks it's that important to tell the Autobots, I'll support her."

"Yeah," said Odd, "XANA's monsters are one thing, monster that transform into vehicles in the real world are another."

"Good," said Aelita, "I better go tell them."

"We don't have to right away," said Jeremie.

"No, the sooner the better," said Aelita before walking over to where the Lynches were talking with the Autobots. She called out, "Excuse me!"

The NEST members turned to her. "We're working on getting you guys a ride back home," said Chloe, "We'll have some cars to pick us up soon."

"No, not that," said Aelita, before looking up at the black Autobot, "Aren't you one of the top Autobots?"

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but as one of Optimus Prime's most senior officers and friends, plus surviving both the Battle of Mission City and Operation: Firestorm, I'd say I'd rank pretty high," said the black Autobot, smugness radiating off of him.

Matt rolled his eyes and said, "Can it, Ironhide, we've heard it all before. You just had to get him started, didn't you?"

"We've decided we're going to tell all," said Aelita.

"Come again?" asked Ironhide.

"Come again?" asked Matt.

"We do have a secret the Decepticons, or whoever sent that monster, wants. It's a supercomputer my father built," said Aelita.

Ironhide snorted and said, "No offense, earthling, but I doubt the Decepticons would want a primitive machine that your father may have built."

"It's not like any other supercomputer," said Aelita before pausing and asking, "Can we talk somewhere not so…open."

"Well, I suppose we can find some place to talk things over," said Scattorshot.

"After lunch!" shouted Odd.

Scattorshot blinked and asked, "Is metabolic fuel consumption that important to your kind?"

"It is for Odd," said Aelita.

* * *

Here's a chapter we've all been waiting for. We've seen a true sample of the danger this new threat presents. Naturally, Operative M is my own character, Mantichrome, redesigned for the live action series. Before anyone says it, I did not base his Reaper mode on Soundwave from Transformers: Prime. I thought of the idea first. Anyhow, the symbol on his chest is the same one I've been uploading as the preview picture for my story.

And we also have the return of Skystalker, this time robot mode and vehicle mode. Ironhide also makes an apperance as well as Scattorshot. And the excitement only builds up from here, particularly with the gang and NEST about to form an alliance. The next chapter may take some time, but it'll be well worth it. Keep an eye out for it and please review.


	6. The Past Designs

**Transformers**

**A World Without Danger**

**Book 1: Earth**

**Chapter 6: The Past Designs**

The five kids looked out the windows of the heavy-duty armored van they were riding in. It may seem a bit excessive, but considering the recent attacks, it was probably necessary.

"I can't believe we're actually riding in a real NEST vehicle," said Odd, "Everyone's going to be so jealous of us."

"Too bad it's all supposed to be top secret," reminded Jeremie.

"Oh, right, what's the point of doing something cool if you can't brag about it?" moaned Odd.

Ulrich rolled his eyes and said, "Same old Odd."

The armored van eventually rolled to a stop. Odd looked out a window to see a sign that said 'Botanica Vineyards.' "A vineyard? I thought we were going to some cool secret base or something."

"Odd, just because NEST is funded by most of the major world powers, doesn't mean it has a secret base everywhere," said Yumi.

Just then, a section of ground rose up to reveal a two-way speaker, kinda like in a drive-thru. "Password?" asked the person on the other side.

"Iacon," said the driver of the vehicle.

A second later, the ground in front of the van started opening up, revealing a passageway underground which the van drove down, the entrance and the radio both lower as they went.  
After a minute, the van rolled to a stop and the driver said, "Welcome to NEST Base #33. Please step out now and wait for escort."

"No secret bases, huh?" said Odd.

"Oh, be quiet," said Yumi.

The five teenagers exited the vehicle and looked around in amazement. They were in a large room with metal paneling the floor, walls, and ceilings. Several people were running about, some of them carting weapons on forklifts, some bringing boatloads of files. There were monitors nearly everywhere, showing various things like what was outside the base, possible Decepticon spottings, or news from different cities.

"Wow, how did you-" started Jeremie before they heard gunshot. The five of them dropped to the ground to avoid being hit. When they heard the soldiers snickering, they looked up to see what was doing the shooting.

Apparently someone forgot to close the door to the shooting range and a silver Autobot was firing at the targets with a pair of Cybertronian pistols. After checking the weapons, the Autobot nodded and placed them on a rack before walking out of the shooting range. He spotted the gang and asked, "What are these adolescents doing here?"

"They're the kids that were involved with that supercomputer thing," said one of the soldiers, "Don't tell me you didn't get the memo."

"Not that so much as didn't memorize it," muttered the Autobot before looking down at the kids, "Greetings, children, my name is Sideswipe, er, welcome to NEST."

"We're not children," said Ulrich.

Sideswipe sighed and muttered, "How does Bumblebee put up with this?"

"Hold it there, chromedome!" called a voice. The gang and Sideswipe turned to see a man in his 30's with frizzy black hair and a somewhat-weathered face.

"What do you want, Simmons?" asked Sideswipe in a somewhat-annoyed voice.

"I'm to take care of these kids as soon as they get here," said Simmons in a rather authority voice, considering that he's addressing a 15 foot robot with swords on his arms.

"I'm pretty sure they have to go see the corporal first," said Sideswipe.

"Well, scissorhands, if you had properly read that memo, your big boss bot specifically said that these..." Simmons paused to examine the gang, "teens get debriefed by me specifically."

Sideswipe grumbled something about 'stupid memos' and said, "Ok, fine, had more important things to do anyways. Try not to botch this like when you first met Sam."

Then was a slight twitch in Simmons' face, as if he was briefly glaring at the Autobot before saying in a deadpan voice, "That's very funny. You give the Twins a run for their comedian jobs."

Sideswipe laughed a bit before walking off, or rolling considering his feet were wheels.

Then Simmons turned to the gang and said, "Well, now that you're here, I am Seymour Simmons, Director of Intelligence, you're coming with me."

"What for?" asked William.

"You'll see soon enough, young man," said Simmons.

He led the five of them to a relatively small conference room. As soon as they were seated, Simmons said, "I'm sure you've been told that NEST is the first group to protect this planet from alien invasion. That was misinformation. The real action started with its predecessor, Sector Seven."

"Never heard of it," said Ulrich.

"Not supposed to," said Simmons, "Sector Seven was a division in the United States government set up about 80 years ago to monitor extraterrestrial occurrences on Earth, particularly N.B.E.'s."

"N.B.E.'s?" asked Yumi.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials," said Simmons, "You more often here of them as Transformers. Fact is, my family's been with Sector Seven since day one. Great-grandfather was one of the First Seven to find the Allspark and build Hoover Dam around it. We also picked up Captain Archibald Witwicky's tale about a 'giant ice man' and went up north to investigate. That's where we found N.B.E.-1, or as you may call him, Megatron."

"Um, pardon me, but can we skip to where this is actually important?" asked Odd.

Simmons glared at Odd and muttered, "Kids these days, no interest in history, what does it matter to them?" He reached down and pulled up a briefcase which he put on the table. He opened it up and pulled out a paper. He looked at it and then at Aelita and said, "Aelita Stone, born 1991 to Harry and Jenny Stone. Is that right?"

"Yes it is," said Aelita.

Then Simmons pulled out another paper and said, "Are you sure it's not Aelita Schaeffer, born 1981 to Waldo Schaeffer AKA Franz Hopper and Anthea Hopper-Schaeffer?"

The five of them just gaped in surprise. No one could have possibly known who Aelita's real parents were, let alone she's really a decade older than she looked. "How do you know?" asked Aelita weakly.

"Very simple answer, little lady," said Simmons as he pulled out a file with the name 'Schaeffer' printed on it, "Your parents used to work at Sector Seven."

There was a moment of silence before Odd said, "You're pulling our legs."

"I don't pull legs," said Simmons, "In this kind of work, fooling around often gets people hurt and we don't want that."

"Well, how did you know who Aelita was?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, the Schaeffer family has left a bit of a legacy behind it, the same way that Daniel Cooper did," said Simmons, "Back in its hayday, Sector 7 not only monitored for N.B.E.'s, but we also did as much research as we could into them. Of course, all we had was the frozen body of one of the biggest nasty ones there was and their super-powerful cube."

"How much did you find out?" asked Yumi.

Simmons paused before saying, "Not more than what the Cybertronians already knew, but we developed a lot of modern technology by reverse-engineering parts of Megatron. It was a bit of a touch-and-go business, but if it weren't for us, you wouldn't be able to carry around phones in your pockets."

"I bet Megatron wasn't happy about that," said Ulrich.

"Well…let's just say that being frozen for several thousand years, being studied by scientists, and being semi-conscious all the while didn't do much for his demeanor," said Simmons, "He didn't care to be called 'N.B.E.-1' or 'Ice-Man' for some reason."

"And what about the Allspark?" asked Aelita.

"Well, all we could figure was that it has an enormous payload of energy in it and it was pretty dangerous to let it out without some kind of control," said Simmons.

"Why's that?" asked Odd.

"It had the ability to bring machines to life, and they typically were not friendly," said Simmons, "But anyways, your parents were part of the team research the Cube as much as we could."

"I bet they were quite a pair," said Jeremie.

"Not precisely," said Simmons, "They were kind of in two different cliques, he was with the heavy-thinkers, she preferred chatting with her friends. You know how it is."

"Oh," said Aelita, a little put off, "I thought they would have liked each other."

"Well, that was before the incident," said Simmons.

"What incident?" asked Jeremie.

"Your folks were working with the Cube one day. No one was sure what happened, but somehow they go they made it go off and zap them. They were fine afterwards, but they had to spend time in the medical wards. While they were healing up, they got to know each other and for some inexplicable reason, really hit it off. Next thing you knew, they were dating, flirting, probably didn't take Waldo long to pop the question," said Simmons.

"Wow, who'd have thought?" said Odd.

"Yeah, well, this isn't nearly as important as what happened," said Simmons.

"Let me guess, they left Sector 7 to raise a family," said Yumi.

"Not quite," said Simmons, "There was a bigger reason they left. You see, there was a bit of a…schism going on."

"A schism?" asked William.

"Yeah, some of the members started thinking that we shouldn't have to be hiding this tech. We ought to using it, mostly to our advantage. Of course, there were several who disagreed with that, said we should keep the N.B.E.'s under wraps. Eventually, tensions got high and small little fights happened. Next thing we knew, about a quarter of our workers tried to 'liberate' Megatron and the Cube. We fought them off, they fled, and we hadn't heard from them since."

"Wow," said William, "Hard to imagine your group could dissolve like that."

"We didn't dissolve," said Simmons, "That wasn't until… Well, never you mind. Point is, Sector 7 split a bit. Optimus Prime compared it to how the civil war on Cybertron started. Anyways, this splinter group may possibly be involved in what's been going on lately."

"You think they sent those thugs after us?" asked Yumi.

"More than likely," said Simmons, "They'll probably have enough data to reverse-engineer a device that could freeze a Transformer. And that may only be the tip of the iceberg."

Suddenly, there was a banging on the door. Well, not so much as a banging as a tapping, like someone was hitting it with something metal. The group jumped until a small voice with a Brooklyn accent shouted, "Hey, come on! Let me in there!"

Simmons sighed and said, "Oh for Pete's sake. Can't I get some respite?" He shouted at the door, "Beat it, there's important information exchange going on in here."

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to be a part of it!" snapped the same voice.

"Oh yeah, right," said Simmons sarcastically.

"Check the memo!" called the voice.

Simmons rolled his eyes and looked at his clipboard. He frowned and said, "Thought it was a typo."

"Orders from the top, now let me in there!"

Simmons sighed and got up. "Never thought that I would want an N.B.E. out of my sight," he said before opening the door.

A small blue monster truck rolled in as soon as the door was open. The gang looked at the truck with disbelief. It looked exactly like the type of toy that you controlled with a remote control. The toy truck drove straight to a small filing cabinet. "Is this some kind of joke?" asked Yumi.

"Yeah, a joke called 'bad management'," said Simmons as he closed the door.

"I've done plenty of jokes in my time, but that was a stinker," said Odd.

"Well, you ain't that funny yourself, conehead," said the voice. Just then, the RC truck started unfolding and extending. It stood up on its front wheels which soon became its feet as the back wheels became its shoulders. The roof of the 'cab' flipped itself around as a head popped out. It had rather large yellow optics that protruded from a relatively small head. Then the robot climbed up the filing cabinet and onto the table before saying, "I can't believe you'd start this meeting without me."

"Uh, who's that?" asked Ulrich.

"Name's Wheelie," said the robot, "And I happen to be one of NEST's top intelligence gatherers."

"Oh please," said Simmons, "All you do is get underfoot."

"Hey, I do plenty of work around here," snapped Wheelie.

"Yeah right," said Simmons, "Don't you have somewhere else to be, like with Witwicky?"

"Him and his girl kicked me out," said Wheelie, "Said they want some 'alone time'. Geeze, you grab a girl's leg once and suddenly you're a soccer ball."

"Well there's gotta be some other place you could go," said Simmons, "What about Spitz's place."

Wheelie paused before looking at Simmons and saying, "You're kidding, right?"

Simmons was about to answer before he thought about it and said, "You're right, there's no way that suggestion could be taken seriously."

"What is he doing here?" asked Yumi.

"Like I said, I'm a valuable intelligence gatherer," said Wheelie, "Ok, I'm not quite as good as Soundwave's pets, but I can do things that other Autobots can't do."

"Such as?" asked Odd.

"I can fit indoors," said Wheelie.

"Good point," said Odd.

"Now then, what been talked about already?" asked Wheelie, picking up the Schaffer file.

"What went down at Sector 7 about 30 or so years ago," said Odd.

"What do these kids have to do with that?" asked Wheelie.

"Because this girl is Anthea and Waldo's daughter," said Simmons, pointing at Aelita.

"Wait a sec, ya mean the two that went off and disappeared?" asked Wheelie.

"That's right," said Simmons.

Wheelie looked at Aelita and said, "I thought you organics were supposed to age with years. She don't look older than Sam."

"Actually, that would be an interesting point to discuss," said Simmons, sitting back down, "So how about it, kids? Got an interesting story to tell?"

The others hesitated a moment before Aelita asked, "Can I see that file first?"

"Sure, Wheels, give her the file," said Simmons.

Wheelie looked annoyed as he rolled over the table. "Give her the file, what do I look like? A paper boy?" he grumbled before handing the Schaffer file to Aelita.

Aelita opened the file and looked through its contents. There were quite a few incident reports, but there were also several photos of her parents. They obviously had been taken at different times, showing Waldo as he looked most like when she last saw him, and when they were younger. Waldo's hair was predictably a straight black instead of its later grey. But Anthea's picture puzzled Aelita. "Wait, my mom had pink hair. Why does this photo have her with red hair?"

"Well, after that energy surge…" started Simmons.

"Energon surge," interrupted Wheelie, "If it's from the Allspark, it's Energon."

Simmons gave Wheelie an annoyed look and said, "After the Cube zapped them, her hair turned from red to pink. Energon radiation is normally harmless to humans, but if they get zapped with enough of the concentrated stuff, it could cause some minor mutations. The most prominent of these mutations is discoloration of the hair. And evidently, it alters the DNA enough for the trait to become genetically inherent."

"I always wondered why her hair was pink," said William.

"Ok, we told our side, now about yours?" said Wheelie.

There was some hesitation, but eventually the whole story flowed out. It was easier than they had thought, as if it had been building up inside them for years just waiting for the time to come out. They told about the Supercomputer, Lyoko, finding an amnesiac Aelita in Lyoko, XANA and its monsters, XANA's attacks on the real world and how they countered them, Franz Hopper, how XANA escaped to the net and then its attempts to destroy Lyoko, William's brainwashing and betrayal, the destruction and recreation of Lyoko, hunting for XANA's Replikas across the Digital Sea, and finally Franz Hopper's sacrifice and XANA's destruction.

The whole thing took the better part of two hours to tell and explain. During all this, Simmons listened with professional silence, only interjecting for a clarification. Wheelie seemed to be listening too, but he wandered about on the table. Often, he rolled up to Odd to tap his head when it looked like he was nodding off, which was mostly during the more technical explanations.

After the gang had finished their tale, Simmons said, "Well, I've heard some wild tales, but that one takes home the grand trophy."

"Eh, I've heard better stories back on Cybertron," said Wheelie.

"But there's something I don't get," said Simmons, "This supercomputer is not only capable of digitalizing matter and vice versa, but it can rewind time?"

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's true," said Jeremie.

"Well, considering I've seen the Cube fold down on itself until it was the size of a basketball, there's little I think is really impossible," said Simmons, "But a supercomputer capable of making Einstein and Hawking's laws of physics seem little more than kid's scrawlings, that's something else."

"What's really unbelievable is that a human made it," said Wheelie, "No offense to you earthlings, but you ain't got the level of tech for that kinda stuff."

"And I suppose it's common place on Cybertron," said Ulrich.

Wheelie shrugged and said, "Well, the digitizing/materializing thing's not that unusual. That's what we call a Transfer Link. Ratchet has one to keep his medical tools in hand. But humans are probably a couple dozen years before inventing their own. But time travel? That sounds completely impossible."

"It's not really time travel," said Aelita, "It's more like moving time back."

"Either way," said Wheelie, "We got space bridges, teleportation, and faster-than-light drives, but time travel's something we never accomplished."

"You certain?" asked Simmons, "You're not exactly the smartest of the Autobots."

"If we had the tech, the Decepticons would have gone back in time and stopped the Allspark from launching or something," said Wheelie.

"But if they did do that, then that means they never would have had a reason to go back in time in the first place," said Yumi, "So then they wouldn't have gone back so that means the Allspark would have launched which means…"

"Stop, you're making my brain hurt," said Odd, gripping his head.

"In any case, I think we need to closely examine this computer which is capable of defying the commonly-held laws of time and space," said Simmons, "And we better do so before the 'Cons or the splinter cell do so first."

"How can you be sure the splinter cell will be after it?" asked William.

"A computer like that? Any crook with an ounce of megalomania would want to get their dirty hands or servos on it," said Simmons, "And I might be hasty to say this, but there's a chance these men in black who had apprehended Anthea were connected to the splinter cell."

"You think they may be related to the dragon too?" asked Aelita.

Simmons paused and said, "Unlikely. Sector 7 attempted to design their own drones based on Cybertronian technology. We made a couple basic security drones, but the L.M.-1's didn't really work the way we wanted them to. I highly doubt that the splinter cell would have been able to build such a sophisticated piece of work." He turned to Wheelie and said, "Any old buddies in your old club that match the dragon's description?"

Wheelie shook his head. "I don't know every Decepticon," said Wheelie, "But we basically keep a, what do you call it, 'humanoid' figure for robot mode. Something this beast-like could be repurprosed Cybertronian wildlife, but I ain't heard of nothing on Cybertron that looks anywhere near that."

"But it had that symbol," said Aelita, "It was like XANA's symbol."

"You said this XANA thing was long gone," said Simmons.

"I know what I saw," said Aelita before taking a piece of paper and a pen. She drew on it for a few seconds before showing a remarkably good picture of the symbol on the dragon's chest. "It had this on it," she said.

"I thought you only saw it for a few seconds," said Odd.

"I'm not likely to forget it," said Aelita.

Wheelie looked at the symbol and said, "Huh, that's definitely Cybertronian. It seems kinda familiar, but I don't know what it is."

"More Language of the Primes?" asked Simmons.

"Nah, this ain't Cybergliphic. I just can't place it," said Wheelie.

"Like I said, we need to properly examine the supercomputer," said Simmons, "We'll just need to put together an investigation squad…"

"Hold on," said Jeremie, "We don't want to make it to conspicuous."

"Soundwave's not peeking around right now," said Simmons, "I think we can afford a little open force."

"Soundwave doesn't have to be looking down for us to be exposed," said Jeremie, "There could be dozens of other spies lurking around. If they see a large military convoy heading towards the factory, they'll know the supercomputer's there and they'll send their own forces."

"True that," said Simmons, "So we need to be covert about this. A skeleton crew will have to do for right now. You kids are going there with Wheels here. He'll examine your supercomputer so we can determine exactly how it's relevant in all this. And of course, you'll need transportation. Unfortunately, our current civilian vehicles are a bit too conspicuous so you'll have to take Autobots. And to make this less awkward than it needs be, let's assign the Autobots you've already met: Jolt, Skids, and Mudflap."

"What about Drift?" asked Ulrich.

"Drift is currently on a top secret mission involving Decepticon activity that is too highly-classified for you," said Simmons.

"How soon are we gonna go?" asked Yumi.

"Soon as possible is preferable," said Simmons.

"Aw man, I just got here," said Odd, "And I haven't found the kitchen yet."

"Son, this is a secret military base, not a boarding house," said Simmons, "Besides, you were provided lunch before you got here."

"Yeah, but now it's snack time," said Odd.

Simmons paused and asked, "Does this kid have a second stomach?"

"High metabolism," said Ulrich, "That's also why he's so scrawny."

"I'm not scrawny, I'm svelte," said Odd.

"Whatever, just get going," said Simmons, "I don't have all day for this."

"The sooner, the better," said William as he got up.

As the others started getting up, Jeremie notice Aelita looked uncomfortable. "Aelita, are you sure you want to go through with this?" asked Jeremie.

"No, but then again, I'm not sure on much anymore," said Aelita.

"Are you at least sure about us?" asked Jeremie.

"Yes, that I'm sure of," said Aelita, smiling a bit.

"Will you get a move on?" asked Wheelie, "You humans' mating rituals take forever."

Jeremie and Aelita turned and said at the same time, "It's none of your business."

"Oh brother, it's just like being back with Witwicky," grumbled Wheelie.

"I think I can understand why they gave you the boot," said Ulrich before turning to Yumi, "He's not riding with us, is he?"

…

Again, the five shadowy figures were gathered around the hexagon-shaped table. The screen on the sixth side was speaking with ill-concealed contempt, "So once again, our mission has failed. It would seem that bad luck has been plaguing you bunglers."

"But we're not to blame," said one of the men in shadows, "Operative M was intercepted by a Decepticon. There was no way we would have predicted that."

"I am running out of patience for you lot," said the screen, "The girl is with NEST now and she'll soon be showing them the supercomputer."

"Sir, we can take advantage of this," said one of the men, "We could track the girl and find the NEST base."

"I had something less simplistic in mind," said the screen, "We shall target the group when they go to the supercomputer and we shall have an operative use a brain unit to download the data we require."

"But they would suspect such an act," said another of the shadowy figures.

"Which is why we'll be sending for the best hunter," said the screen.

There was a bit of a pause before one of the men said, "Uh, sir, he is not that reliable."

"He shall do the job, provided he's paid enough," said the screen, "We have no time to lose. The VS data shall be mine."

* * *

Another chapter done at last. This one was delayed because I wanted to see how Dark of the Moon would relate to this story. And the final conclusion would be: it wouldn't work out. I won't say why quite yet, but if I included DOTM in this continuity, there wouldn't be room for much else. So as far as anyone should be concerned, the events of Dark of the Moon, or even the prequel comics 'Rising Storm', don't happen in this storyline. In fact, it may be that Sam might still be with Mikaela instead of Carly. Of course, I don't intend Sam to be in this story so that wouldn't really matter either way. I might use some characters from DOTM and a little off the plot, but it's still not part of the story.

Anyways, a bit of background exploring here, with Sector 7 and Franz Hopper. Of course, you Code Lyoko fans would already know all about what happened with the supercomputer and such. Perhaps not the most riveting of the chapters, but definitely important info exposition. But next update will have a lot of action and plenty of interesting things. So keep an eye out for it and please review.


	7. Brainchild

**Transformers**

**Virtual Legacy**

**Chapter 7: Brainchild**

In a darkened room, a monitor projected its voice through. "I am glad to see that you have been able to arrive on just short notice," it said.

The only figure in the room was much larger than a human could be and the only illumination besides the little light from the monitor was from the red glow of his optics. "This secrecy thing's going over the top," said the Transformer, "Couldn't you at least meet me in person?"

"I'm afraid there's little time for that," said the voice in the monitor.

"Now don't tell me you're getting too scared to show your face around," taunted the Cybertronian.

"Enough of this," said the voice, "You understand the assignment, correct?"

"Yeah, yeah, follow the Autobots and their human buddies and find this supercomputer thing," said the Cybertronian, "Hardly worth calling me in for."

"My subordinates are proving themselves increasingly incapable of keeping up with my demands," said the voice.

"Good henchmen are getting harder to find," said the Cybertronian.

"And there will be a bonus if you manage to get the girl to me," said the voice.

"The pinkhead? Sure, that shouldn't be a challenge. She's supposed to be alive, right?"

"Of course she's supposed to be alive! She's useless to me dead!"

"Ok, ok, no need to get all huffy."

"I cannot allow anything to happen to her. No lethal force for this mission."

"Aw, you're taking all the fun out of the job."

"I cannot risk it. If you try to kill one of them, you might end up killing her."

"That goes for the Autobots too?"

"Especially the Autobots. It'll be too easy for you to miss them and hit her by accident."

A tone of anger entered the Cybertronian's voice. "I don't miss that easy," he said.

"In any case, you mustn't forget the important part of the mission," said the monitor.

"Sure, grab that supercomputer for ya."

"I don't need its hardware. Besides, you'll probably end up ruining it. Once you've located it, deploy the brain drone. It shall transmit the data I need."

"Yeah, about that. I'm not too eager about having that thing latched onto me."

"I don't care. I will not have you, as the humans say, ham-handling the job. I require precision and effectiveness. Do you think you can handle that?"

Suddenly, there was a snicking sound and a glowing hook appeared on the Cybertronian's right arm. "I'm the best in my profession," he said.

…

Fortunately, it wasn't rush hour so the three Chevy cars had no trouble navigating through the city. They soon came to a stop at the abandoned car factory. The doors of the blue Volt opened, allowing Yumi and Ulrich to get out. "Well, that's the first time I've been in a car that drove itself," said Yumi.

"You get used to it," said the Volt.

Ulrich jumped a little and glared at it. "Not for a while, I won't," he said.

Then Wheelie jumped out of the Volt and said, "Bumblebee was a better ride, at least he didn't keep changing the station every five seconds."

"I still don't see why we need this guy with us," said Yumi, "He gives me the creeps."

"He's the only one of us who's small enough to investigate this supercomputer of yours," said Jolt before scanning the area. "Area secure, no humans to spot us." He then started shifting upwards into his robot mode, hood becoming chest, wheels becoming feet, electrical daggers sparking in his wrists.

Yumi stared up in amazement and said, "That is so cool."

Meanwhile, Odd and William had climbed out of the Beat, Odd and the car still laughing loudly. William rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "It was like a torture chamber in there," he groaned, "Nothing but bad jokes the whole way."

"That's cause ya ain't got no sense of humor," said the car.

William jumped, causing Odd and the Beat to laugh again. "That's not funny," said William.

Then Jeremie and Aelita got out of the Trax. Now that they had no more passengers to hold, the two cars transformed into the Autobot twins. "I don't see why you guys need to keep yourselves hidden in public," said Jeremie, "Everyone knows about you Transformers."

"Yeah, but humans see somethin' weird, they go runnin' for the hills, squealin' like little pigs," said Mudflap. The two twins laughed, much to the kids' annoyance.

"This is the Autobot scout team?" asked William.

Jolt shrugged and said, "There are no signs of any Decepticons within city perimeters. They don't send out the likes of Ironhide or Sideswipe to check out a couple kids' secret computer."

"Hey, most of us are in college now!" snapped Yumi.

"Please, you're barely past protoform age to us," said Jolt.

"Yeah, they go out takin' down big, bad Decepticons and we get stuck lookin' after babies," said Mudflap.

"You know we can still hear you," said Jeremie.

Skids smacked Mudflap's head and said, "What did I tell ya about insultin' humans?"

"Do it over our private link?" asked Mudflap.

"That's right," said Skids.

"Can we please just go to the supercomputer?" asked Aelita.

Jolt nodded and said, "Wheelie, you're with me. Mudflap, Skids, you stay out here and guard. You kids, er, humans take us to this supercomputer."

"Hey, how come we gotta stay out and do guard duty?" demanded Skids.

"Yeah, we went and protected that Witwicky kid, found the Tomb of the Primes, and took on Devastator. All you ever did was put Jetfire's parts on Optimus after he got brought back to life," said Skids.

Wheelie laughed and said, "They got you there, blue boy."

Jolt glared at the other Autobots and said, "Those are orders from up top."

"I don't care if they came from Prime's vocalizer itself," said Skids, "We easy got 20 times more experience than you all together."

Jolt's glare intensified and his daggers started crackling even more. Odd saw now was a good time to step in before things got ugly. "Hey, that's why they want you out here. If any Decepticons came, they'd want the most-seasoned fighters standing guard to stop them."

The twins exchanged glances and Mudflap, "Well, when you put it like that, guardin' doesn't sound no bad at all."

"Yeah, let's see those Decepticons just try to get past us," said Skids.

"Ok, let's get moving then," said Ulrich and the gang started leading Wheelie and Jolt into the factory.

"Nice move back there," said Yumi to Odd.

"Hey, I got plenty of experience with my older sisters," said Odd.

The inside of the factory hadn't changed much. Of course, it was still abandoned, so there wouldn't be too many changes in the first place. Unless you count the spreading rust, the accumulating spider webs and dust, or the graffiti that's been painted where a passing police car wouldn't notice.

As the group walked in, Jolt looked around and said, "This place is a dump."

"Well, it's been abandoned for 20 years or so," said Jeremie, "You can't really expect it to be shiny."

"What kinda factory is this anyways?" asked Wheelie.

"They used to make cars here," said Aelita.

This caught Jolt's attention. "So, this is one of the processing plants where you design your vehicles and produce them?" he asked.

"Uh…I guess," said Ulrich, "Probably not like where you came from."

"Where do you make your vehicles?" asked Yumi.

"We rarely even need vehicles," said Jolt, "We're programmed with the ability to assume a vehicular mode upon reaching full maturity. In fact, our 'vehicles' are mainly starships or are designed for mass transportation."

"Neat, how's your mile average?" asked Odd.

"What is this, an auto show?" said Wheelie, "I thought we were here to look at a computer."

"Right," said William, "Let's get going." He went to the hanging ropes and grabbed one. The fiber it was made of was pretty strong and had no trouble supporting him as he slid down. The others quickly slid down the ropes as well. However, Ulrich hesitated.

"Ah, now don't tell me you're afraid of heights," said Wheelie.

"You're one to talk about heights," said Ulrich, "I don't see you climbing down."

"Oh please, I'm a salvage/scrap drone," said Wheelie, "We're built to get down into hard-to-get places." He jumped off the edge and grabbed a rope. The tiny Autobot slid down easily.

Jolt looked at the ropes and said, "Those won't hold my weight, let alone the structure it's connected to."

"I think there's a ramp around here," said Ulrich.

"Ah, I'll just jump," said Jolt before his leg pistons tensed.

"Wait, wait, wait!" called Jeremie, "The floors might not be able to withstand the impact. You don't want to damage the lower levels."

Jolt rolled his optics and muttered, "Shoddy human construction."

While Jolt was getting down to the floor, the others were walking over to the elevator. Wheelie rolled after them on his wheel feet. As soon as they were at the elevator, Jeremie fingered one of the control panel with the elevator button and pulled out a tab.

"What's that?" asked Wheelie.

"It's a fingerprint scanner," said Jeremie, "After we shut down the supercomputer, I installed this so no one would stumble across it by accident.

"What's a fingerprint?" asked Wheelie.

"It's, well, uh…" Jeremie for once was at a loss to explain such a basic term to an alien individual.

"It's what we have on the ends of our fingers," said Yumi, holding out her fingers, "Every human's got a unique pattern which can be distinguished from another's. So that allows us to identify others if they've left their fingerprints on something."

The others were expecting Wheelie to look confused and require a more detailed explanation. Instead, he said, "Oh, you mean like a sigil glyph."

"A what?" asked Odd.

By that point, Jolt had gotten down to the floor with Ulrich. As he walked over, he said, "It's kinda like our way of putting a signature on something. Every Cybertronian's got one that's matches their spark."

"So, you guys make ink too?" asked Odd.

Jolt gave Odd an odd look. "What is…ink?" asked Jolt.

"It's a substance that we humans use for writing," said Jeremie, "What the black words you put on printed pages are made of."

"Oh, that stuff," said Jolt, "Frankly, I think that method of recording is extremely inefficient."

"Well, there are some among us who think so too," said William, mostly to himself.

"We have a far easier way to leave our mark," said Jolt before kneeling down. He extended the thumb on his right finger which glowed slightly. He pressed it against the concrete ground for a second before lifting it up. The area where his thumb was pressed glowed red and sparkled for a minute before fading to reveal a strange-looking design. It had a passing resemblance to Asian calligraphy, but it was definitely alien.

"Cool," said Yumi, "What does it say?"

"Well, it wouldn't mean much to you if I said it in Cybertronian," said Jolt.

"Not to mention you don't have the mouthparts to say it," said Wheelie.

"The most suitable way for your vocal structures to articulate it would be 'Jolt'. But if you could really understand it, it'd tell a lot more about me than that," said Jolt.

However, when Aelita looked at it, it didn't seem like alien gibberish to her. She could understand the glyph as if it was written in English. Like Jolt said, it said so much more than his name, but she couldn't find the words to describe it.

Jeremie put his hand on Aelita's shoulder and said, "Aelita, are you alright?"

Aelita blinked and asked, "What?"

"You were spacing out there," said Yumi.

"Oh, I'm fine," said Aelita, "Let's go to the supercomputer."

Jeremie put his thumb on the fingerprint scanner and the elevator door opened. Jolt peered down at it and said, "I don't think I can fit, unless I go into vehicle mode. But there wouldn't be much room and I'm not sure how to get in."

"Well, maybe you can be the second line of defense," said Odd, "You know, if anyone manages to get past the Twins out there."

"Besides, I'm the one who's gonna be looking at it," said Wheelie, "You wouldn't know what to look for."

Jolt gave Wheelie an annoyed look before saying, "Don't take long. There's nothing to do up here."

"I'm sure you'll find some way to keep yourself busy," said Ulrich as they got in the elevator.

Jolt watched the elevator go down before huffing and said, "I almost wish a Decepticon will come.

…

Meanwhile, Skids and Mudflap were standing guard at the bridge when they heard the sound of an engine coming towards them. They both looked ahead to see a black and green muscle car driving down the street towards them. There was something off about this vehicle. It didn't look like any model the humans normally drove, with a cowcatcher on the front, spikes on the sides and back, and four red headlights. Not to mention they were picking up some Energon radiation from this muscle car.

The twins stepped forward and Mudflap shouted, "Yo, now this is official NEST business going on here."

"How about ya'll turn around and go drive off before you feel sorry for it later?" said Skids.

The muscle car stopped a few feet in front of them and a voice came out, "I think you two will be the ones who will be sorry if you don't get out of my way right now."

"We took on Decepti-punks tougher than you," said Skids.

"Yeah, we ain't afraid of you, freak car," said Mudflap.

"Oh no?" said the muscle car. The exposed engine block lifted up slightly, revealing a pair of small blasters. A blue burst shot of them, knocking them backwards. While the twins were momentarily stunned, the muscle car made its move. The sides of it split apart and rose the vehicle up as they formed the legs, the headlights and cowcatcher appearing on the feet. The middle of the car unfolded rapidly, roof becoming chest, engine block appearing on the left arm, a large hook extending out from the right arm where the right hand should be, a head with two spikes on the sides of its chin popping out.  
As Skids and Mudflap were getting their senses back, they found themselves staring down the blue barrel of the blaster on the Decepticon's right arm. "By the way, the name's not 'freak car'," said the former-muscle car, "It's Lockdown." Then an electromagnetic pulse burst out of the gun and hit the twins, freezing up their systems and paralyzing them. Lockdown didn't waste any time. He picked first one then the other up and threw them over the bridge and into the river. "Now if you don't mind, I've got a bounty to collect," said Lockdown, his hook glowing with Energon as he walked towards the factory.

…

Meanwhile, the gang and Wheelie were descending down in the elevator. They passed by the monitor room and the scanner room, both inaccessible as long as the supercomputer was off. As the doors opened on the bottom level, cold air gushed in. It appeared the supercomputer's cooling system had stayed active for a while before it powered down as well. Nevertheless, it was quite cool inside.

As Wheelie rolled in, he gazed around the seemingly-empty room and said, "I don't see anything. You sure this is the right place?"

"Of course," said Jeremie, "It's just hidden right now." He walked over to the wall and activated the switch. The circle in the middle of the room, emblazoned with the Eye of XANA, split into three even pieces and slid back. Then a broad stout cylinder rose up from the floor. After going up a certain height, it stop but a thinner cylinder extended from that. After it had gone up a few feet in height, a much slimmer cylinder extended significantly taller from it. The whole thing had a layered look, like a partially-collapsed telescope and was completely covered with orange circuit lines. Another Eye of XANA was at the base. Cool vapors drifted away from the supercomputer.

Wheelie looked at it for a while before saying, "Huh, now there's something you don't see often."

"Well, supercomputers aren't something you usually find in the basement of an abandoned car factory," said Ulrich.

"Nah, not that," said Wheelie, "No offense, but you humans aren't in the same league as us Cybertronians. Your big military computers don't stand a chance against one of us if we wanted to hack it."

"We're not here to contrast our technologies," interrupted Yumi, "We're here for you to inspect this thing."

Wheelie rolled his optics and muttered, "Dames, don't have any patience for any critiques."

Speaking louder, Wheelie said, "This thing's definitely Cybertronian inspired. Design-wise, anyways. But it's got a really simple construction. I mean, only three parts sliding out? On Cybertron, it would have come out of the floor a lot fancier than that. But you haven't got to real reconfiguration technology. It might be an impressive piece of work for you guys, but it's the equivalent of a satellite dish made out of, what it's called, bamboo to us."

"If it's so inferior, why are there bad guys trying to kidnap us to get it," said William.

"What do you mean 'us'?" said Odd.

"Come on, I'm a part of this team too," said William.

"Uh-huh, and when did some creepy guys with hi-tech come after you?" said Ulrich.

"Hey, I was attacked by that dragon too," said William.

"It wasn't after you, it was after Aelita," said Yumi.

"Thanks for reminding me," said Aelita in a slightly sour tone.

"So I have to get savaged by some deranged robot that can turn into a small vehicle to be included in this group?" snapped William.

"Hey, I resembled that remark!" cried Wheelie.

"William, you've been the lucky one so far," said Jeremie.

"Lucky? XANA captured him the first time he was in Lyoko," said Ulrich.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" said William.

"Ulrich, drop it," said Jeremie, "It happened, it's over, we're not here about that. What I mean was that William hasn't been attacked by himself like the rest of us. Apparently, he hasn't been considered a big enough of a threat for someone to try and kidnap him. If he wanted too, he could just walk away right now. The rest of us are too closely-related to this. We'd be vulnerable without NEST."

There was a long pause before Ulrich said, "It could have been a matter of time before they hit William's base. Didn't the Decepticons attack that base in Qatar a few years back?"

"They wouldn't be desperate enough to pull off a stunt like that, right, Wheelie?" asked Aelita.

"Hey, don't drag me into this," said Wheelie, "I'm just here to see what's about this thing that's worth going after. Which would be easier if it was switched on."

There was a long and awkward pause right after that, mostly involving looking at the floor or at Aelita uncomfortably. "What? What did I say?" asked Wheelie.

"Uh, turning on the supercomputer isn't that simple," said Jeremie.

"Oh, it can't be that hard," said Wheelie, "There's a big power switch over there."

"No, it's just…" started Aelita but didn't finish.

"When the supercomputer was first turned on, a lot of stuff happened that we never expected," said Ulrich.

"And we had to go through a lot before it was safe enough to shut down," said Yumi.

"And we lost a lot along the way," said William.

Wheelie blinked and said, "It's just a supercomputer, and a vacant one too from what you told me. I don't see any danger in turning it back on."

"Uh, is there any danger?" asked Odd.

"Well, with XANA destroyed, I can't think any danger that would happen if it were reactivated," said Jeremie, "I suppose it's just sentimentalism that's holding us back."

Wheelie rolled his optics and said, "Oy, you humans and your crazy emotions, do you ever try to think with logic?"

Yumi glared at Wheelie and said, "You have no idea what-"

"Yumi, it's ok," said Aelita, "We need to turn it on again, if only for a little while. As soon as we're done, we'll turn it back off."

Ulrich gave a light scoff and said, "That's what Jeremie said the first time."

However, Odd went over to the supercomputer before pausing and asking, "Uh, where's the switch again?"

Ulrich smacked his forehead and said, "Odd, you are a bumbler around computers."

"Like you're a computer scientist yourself," retorted Odd.

"Compared to you, I am," said Ulrich.

"Are you guys really arguing over this?" asked William.

"Old habits die hard," said Ulrich.

Just then, there was a humming sound. They turned to see Aelita taking her hand off the switch while the circuitry started glowing with power.

"Aelita?" said Jeremie.

"We won't get anywhere just shuffling our feet," said Aelita, "We need to settle this here and now."

Wheelie looked at the supercomputer and asked, "What powers this thing anyways?"

"A uranium isotope," said Jeremie.  
"I thought it was something like that. For a second, I thought it was…" Wheelie shook his head and said, "I gotta get to work. Where's the control room?"

…

Meanwhile, Lockdown had entered the factory, but was keeping to the shadows. Although it may seem odd that a large alien robot would be trying to stay hidden in an abandoned factory, but Lockdown had good reason to. Jolt was still there, but he seemed to have lost interest and was looking at the machinery used to produce cars.

'_Hmm…hadn't thought about a second guard. Still, this guy looks like no trouble. I could take him out easily. But I can't cause too much damage here. I'll have to sneaky with this one. But first, I have a cargo to unload,'_ he thought.

His chest that was formed from the roof of his vehicle mode opened up slightly and Lockdown reached his hand inside. He pulled out a black box, the kind one would normally find in airplanes and not particularly cars. He carefully put the black box on the floor and said, "Alright, get to work." The black box stood motionless for a few seconds before suddenly parts of it started to unfold and extend. Quite soon, a small robot stood there. It looked around before running towards the elevator. It climbed through the holes in the grate before scuttling down the elevator shaft.

'_Now to take care of that Autobot,'_ thought Lockdown, _'This shouldn't be too hard, with a little stealth.' _ He pressed a few buttons on his right arm, causing his body to shimmer before become translucent. If one was looking hard, they could see the distortions of light around his form, but for the most part he was completely invisible.

The bounty hunter and stalked towards Jolt, who still had his back to him while examining the car-making machines. Lockdown was as silent as could be as he crept closer, which was actually quiet silent for a large robot. Of course, they may mostly have something to do with the sonic dampeners installed into his legs which muffled his footsteps. Pretty soon, Lockdown was within striking range of Jolt. He lifted his hook high, ready to tear through the Autobot's back.

Suddenly, Jolt spun around and punched his arm forward. He made direct contact with Lockdown's face, causing the bounty hunter to be knocked backwards. Jolt dusted off his fist and said, "Really nice try, you almost had me."

Lockdown dropped his camouflage and demanded, "How did you know I was there? My stealth mode is imperceptible."

"Yeah, for people who only use their eyes and ears," said Jolt, "Hasn't anyone told you I have electrokinesis? I could sense your electricity."

Lockdown got back up and said, "You obviously don't know who you're dealing with."

"Uh, not on name-basis," said Jolt, "You're just a Decepticon, so who cares?"

Lockdown scoffed and said, "Figures someone who's never been heard of at all wouldn't know anyone of importance."

Jolt glared and said, "I do know what you're going to be." He extended his electric daggers. "Another pile of scrap to be dumped."

"Knives aren't for little boys," said Lockdown tauntingly, "Why don't you go jump in the river with your friends?" Jolt just gave a shout of anger and charged at Lockdown, who easily flipped him over. "Amateur," said Lockdown before kicking him.

…

Meanwhile, the little black box robot had scuttled down the elevator shaft to the first floor below. It scuttled over to the locking mechanism of the door. A little fiddling and the door opened. The robot jumped down into the monitor room. It went over to the monitor and jumped up into the chair. Its optics swiveled as it looked over the monitor and keyboard. Eventually, it spotted a USB port next to the monitor. A panel on its left shoulder slid open and a wire extended out before plugging into the USB port.

The monitor and the holo-map flashed on immediately. The map of Lyoko spun around rapidly, the towers of the four sectors briefly lighting up before the control towers of the Forest, Ice, Mountain, and Desert Sectors fully activated, glowing bright orange. Then the map zoomed in to focus on Sector Carthage. The tower in it activated as well before the map zoomed in further until it showed the core room. The core had been rotating at its normal speed before suddenly the rotating speed up even faster. Streams of data shot from it and headed through the numerous hallways before connecting to the exterior data port. After which, the data streams converged on the tower, which glowed even brighter.

The drone's optics lit up as the payload of data coursed through its processor. However, it wasn't there to just store the stolen data. The panels on its right shoulder flipped up and rearranged into what very closely resembled a satellite dish. Its transmitter glowed slightly as it started beaming the data upwards. The transmission passed straight through the steel and concrete of the factory and up to a satellite where it would eventually be sent to its masters. Of course, the transmission was actually a backup copy. The drone was to return with Lockdown and deliver the data itself. Now all it had to do was go upstairs back to Lockdown…

Suddenly, the door to the elevator clicked and sparked as it started to open. The drone spun around to face the door. There was no time to hide and no time to escape up the ladder. It cursed itself for forgetting to lock the door.

As the door was opening, Odd could be heard saying, "And this is where the commands come from, Einstein's little…" However, he stopped when he noticed that the supercomputer's holomap had been turned on and there was a small robot sitting at the seat. "What the-"

The robot didn't give Odd time to say more. It screeched like a monkey and jumped out of the chair and right onto Odd's face. Odd screamed and pulled at the robot, "Facehugger! Facehugger!"

"Quick, get it off before it lays eggs in his brain," said William.

Wheelie glared up at him and said, "Where the slag did you get that stupid idea from?"

"But, it's an alien robot spy thing," said William.

"It's a salvage drone, like me," said Wheelie, "I think I would know better than you, beef brains."

"Get it off of me!" shouted Odd.

"Ok, hold very still," said William before picking up a loose pipe.

"William, are you crazy?" said Jeremie, "You'll hit Odd too."

"Don't worry, I've had plenty of practice with a baseball bat," said William, "I won't hurt a hair on his head."

Before Jeremie could object, William swung the pipe at Odd's head. Jeremie and Wheelie winced, fully expecting the length of metal to connect with Odd's cranium. However, it wasn't Odd's cranium that was hit, but the robot's. The metal clanged loudly against the robot's skull, which appeared to stun it. William swung the pipe again and whacked the robot's head again. Only it appeared that the first blow had weakened it as the second blow knocked off its skullcap or helmet. The third blow sent the small robot flying off Odd's head and into Jeremie, who was knocked over.

"Nice swinging," said Odd with a sigh of relief, "But next time, try not to make it look like a piñata party."

"I'll remember that…the next time a robot's clutching your head," said William.

Just then, the hatch that led down to the scanner room opened up and Ulrich poked his head out. "Hey Jeremie, me and the girls are ready to virtualize, what's the hold-up?"

"Oh, we've just had a little trouble with an espionage robot," said Odd.

"What? Is it a Decepticon?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremie picked up the robot and looked it over. He couldn't find any kind of identifying markings on it, aside from what would have been from his altmode. "I'm not certain," said Jeremie, "But it's fortunate we stopped it when we did. I'm sure the researchers at NEST would want to see this."

Suddenly, the robot shuddered before its optics lit up. It gave a shriek before it started hitting Jeremie with its hands. Its fingers were hardly sharp and it didn't have any more strength than its sized suggested. However, Jeremie wasn't exactly what one would call physically enduring. After a couple of smacks, the robot made Jeremie let go.

"I thought you killed that thing," said Odd.

"I guess I only knocked it out cold for a while," said William.

The robot growled at them before it reached into Jeremie's laptop bag and grabbed his PC. It then bolted across the room. "Stop him!" shouted Jeremie.

Odd, William, and Wheelie hurried after the robot. One would have expected it to be a short chase, but the robot was actually faster than it looked. Not to mention being so small allowed it to sidestep Odd and William as they lunged at it.

"Come back here you-" started Wheelie before the robot spun around and smacked Wheelie with the laptop. Wheelie was sent tumbling back a few feet. "Hey, you hit me in the face!" snapped Wheelie, "Not cool!"

The robot quickly started clambering up the ladder. Ulrich had quickly climbed out of the hatch to the scanner room and headed for the ladder. The creature was faster than Ulrich, but it did become delayed when it had to stop to open the hatch to the top floor. This bought Ulrich just enough time to grab the robot by the ankle as he was coming out of the hatch. "Gotcha!" he called before looked up and gaped, "No way…"

Jolt was fighting another Transformer, one with a large hook for a right hand. Ulrich had seen Transformers fighting before with Drift and Bludgeon, but there's something about watching two giant robots fighting each other that makes one want to stop and watch.

However, the little robot Ulrich was holding wasn't so distracted. It started shaking its held leg and kicking with the other leg. It still had its servos clasped around the laptop and was not going to be letting go any time soon. This was enough to break Ulrich's concentration on the robot fight. "Hey, quit that! Come here you little scrap piece!" he snapped as he tried to pull the robot back. But the robot was putting up more of a fight than he had bargained for.

Suddenly, a shot rang out and clipped the hook-handed Transformer's shoulder. They all turned to see Skids and Mudflap at the doorway, both dripping water and looking irked.

"Hey, ya'll can't just toss in the river and forget about us!" snapped Skids.

"Yeah, man, you're gonna get a lotta whooping on your sorry skidplate!" called Mudflap. The twins jumped forward, causing some cracks in the floor as they landed. They then ran towards Jolt and his opponent.

However, the little robot in Ulrich's grip had pulled itself free and was making a sprint. "Guys! Stop that robot!" yelled Ulrich, "He's got Jeremie's computer!"

Mudflap looked towards where Ulrich's voice was coming from and spotted the little robot as well. However, the robot noticed that Mudflap noticed it and ran in the opposite direction. Mudflap stomped over towards the hatch and tried to grab at the robot. But the small automaton kept slipping through his large fingers and trying to run away. Ulrich, who had gotten all the way out of the hatchway and a safe distance from the fight, could tell that Mudflap was getting more and more frustrated. Finally, Mudflap let out a Cybertronian oath and raised his large left fist high.

Ulrich understood what Mudflap was intending and shouted, "Mudflap, don't!"

However, whether Mudflap didn't hear him or couldn't retract the command, his big fist came smashing down, right on top of the robot. Apparently, he had put a lot of force into that punch because his fist went right through the floor and into the monitor room. The metal fist collided with the floor of the monitor room, which made another hole in that floor. The collective rubble of the two floors, the robot, and the laptop were sent down with enough force that when they hit the floor of the scanner room, it broke through it as well, resulting in a sizeable pile of debris hitting the floor of the supercomputer's chamber.

Lockdown looked at where Mudflap had smashed the robot and muttered, "Oh scrap." His employer was not going to like this. He'd have tried grabbing that girl now, but with these three bozos in the way, she'd probably end up more damaged then his employer would have liked. "Better cut my losses," said Lockdown before pushing Jolt aside. He ran towards the door, easily maneuvering around Skids. As soon as he was out on the bridge, he shifted back to his muscle car mode and sped away.

Since it was already too late to stop or catch the bounty hunter, the group focused on the more imminent issue, namely the hole that Mudflap had created that led straight down to the supercomputer.

Jeremie, in particular, was in shock, which is understandable since his laptop was part of the rubble at the bottom of that long hole. He was just staring down at the mess, seemingly unable to speak. Odd poked him a bit and said, "Uh, Jeremie, you ok there? Jeremie?"

"I think his brain's broken," said William.

"Aw, it can't be that bad a shock," said Wheelie.

Suddenly, Jeremie yelled out, "Mudflap, I NEEDED THAT!"

"Yeah, his mind's ok," said Odd.

"My bad," said Mudflap.

"Your bad? What kinda lame excuse is that?" snapped Skids, "Look at the big ol' mess you made."

"Hey, I was trying to catch that little one," said Mudflap.

"Yeah, catch it, not smash it, you dimwit!" snapped Skids.

"Hey, who you callin' a dimwit?" said Mudflap, "Like you woulda done different. You'd a smashed a big hold down there too."

"Nuh-uh, I woulda caught it a lot easier than you woulda."

"Oh no you couldn't, you're too clumsy."

"Clumsy? I'm the graceful one here."

"No way, I move a lot better than you can."

"Can not."

"Can too."

"Can not.

"Can too."

"Guys! Guys!" shouted Ulrich, "Can we just focus on what's happening right now? What was that thing anyways?"

"A spy bot obviously," said William.

"Weren't you paying attention?" snapped Wheelie, "It's a salvage/scrap drone. It was built for looking for useable pieces in a scrapyard but it's obviously been repurposed."

"Well, it's scrap itself now," said Odd.

"Uh, guys, what just happened up there?" called Yumi's voice.

"There was a bounty hunter 'Con up here named Lockdown," said Jolt, "I scared him off but then Mudflap smashed that spy bot down through those floors."

"And my laptop!" yelled Jeremie.

"Well, maybe there's something salvageable left," said Aelita.

"I'm pretty sure his computer's toast," said Odd.

"But if there's enough left of the robot, maybe we can tell where it came from," said Aelita.

"Maybe," said Wheelie, "We can have Ratchet take a look at the parts."

"Ok…" said Jeremie slowly before pointing up through the hole and yelled, "Stay where you are and no more smashing!"

"Oh sure, one little mishap and everyone's pushing you out and keeping you from goin' somewhere interestin'," said Mudflap.

"Like you woulda fit down there in the first place," said Skids.

"You guys start arguing again and I'm throwing you back into the river," said Jolt.

…

When the group got down to the supercomputer's chamber, the mess looked pretty bad. The pieces of the robot and the laptop were virtually indistinguishable from each other. Not to mention all the pieces of paneling and wires from the three floors they had crashed through. In fact, it was mostly a jumbled pile of circuitry and metal.

Odd gave a low whistle and said, "Boy, that's one fine mess."

"You're telling me," said Wheelie, "It'll take hours to pick out all the pieces."

"Do we really have time for that?" asked Yumi, "I thought we were supposed to be looking over the supercomputer."

"That would have been a lot easier if my laptop weren't destroyed," said Jeremie bitterly.

"Maybe there's something left of it you can use," said William.

"Doubt it," said Ulrich, "It looks pretty pulverized to me."

However, Aelita felt a little nudge in her mind. It wasn't really an idea, more like a suggestion. It didn't seem to make sense to her, but she found that the idea of trying it out was too irresistible. "Actually, I think it's still salvageable," said Aelita.

"For what? Loose computer parts?" said Odd.

"No, I think I might be able to access its data," said Aelita.

"Aelita, the memory's been smashed, along with the rest of it," said Yumi, "There's no way you can get anything out of it."

"I know, but I think I should at least try," said Aelita.

"You really think you can pull data out of a smashed computer?" asked William.

"Well, I didn't think I could manipulate energy on my own before," said Aelita, "I wouldn't be too surprised if I could do this too."

"This I gotta see," said Wheelie, sounding mostly sarcastic.

Aelita knelt down and held her hands over the pile of rubble. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Eventually, she could feel that source of energy inside her, throbbing to be released. She unconsciously started to sing, not a real song, but a pure note that reverberated through the air. At the same time, the supercomputer's circuit lines started glowing bright. An aura of energy appeared around Aelita's hands before flowing over the pieces of metal and circuitry in front of her. The glow intensified until everyone had to cover their eyes, even Wheelie.

When the light eventually faded, they looked to see what had happened. The supercomputer was still working as if nothing happened. Aelita, however, was leaning on her hands and panting. In front of her, the pile of debris was gone and in its place was Jeremie's laptop, looking as good as new.

"Wow, how did you do that?" asked Odd.

"Are you okay, Aelita?" asked Yumi.

"I'm…fine," said Aelita, "It feels like I've just run a mile."

"Hey, where'd all that junk go?" asked Wheelie, looking around.

"Did you vaporize it?" asked Ulrich.

"No…I'm not sure what I did," said Aelita.

"Well, you apparently brought my laptop back," said Jeremie as he picked it up, "But I better make sure it's working." He pushed on the power button a few times, but it didn't respond.

"Maybe you need to recharge it," said William.

Just then, the laptop gave an odd clicking sound before it began to shake. Jeremie quickly put the laptop back on the floor and stepped away, half-expecting it to explode. However, it did something very different. The keyboard suddenly lifted up on separate panels and started folding together. The bulk of the computer also started splitting into more panels and reconfiguring into a more solid shape. The screen fragmented before folding down onto part of the shifting machine. Within a few seconds, the computer had transformed into a robot that looked vaguely familiar.

"Uh, she didn't just bring your computer back," said Ulrich, "She brought it to life."

"More like she brought the salvage drone back to life and merged it with the computer," said William.

The robot looked at the group before saying, "What, you never seeing a transforming computer before?"

"Uh…no," said Ulrich, "Er, who are you?"

"Who am I? Uh…what do they call me?" asked the robot, looking confused.

"Ugly," commented Odd. The description was rather fitting. The robot had a larger left eye than a right eye, glowing wires sprouting from his head like hair, a right shoulder that was higher and bulkier than the other, and its mouth was lopsided and incongruous. All in all, it wasn't a very attractive-looking robot.

"No, no, that's not it," said the robot before it looked even more thoughtful. Smoke started to come out of its wiry 'hair' before it shouted, "BRAINS! Well, no, no, not quite, they called me Brain Unit 5, Brain 5 for short. But Brains is better."

"Who called you Brain Unit 5?" asked Yumi.

Brains looked puzzled, causing more smoke to come from his head. "Uh…I don't remember. I don't remember a lot except a crash. Then there's all that stuff about Lyoko…"

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," said Jeremie, "What do you know about Lyoko?"

"Oh, pretty much everything. At least, everything you knew. I mean, you've only been able to scratch the surface of its potential. I mean, digitalizing and rematerializing is just really basic compared to its possible use, which could be potentially full teleportation between two areas of considerable distance as well as eliminating the required limitation of mass and matter that's passing through the two points, ofcoursethat'…"

As Brains rambled on and on, he started talking faster and with a higher voice as the smoke coming from his head became more noticeable until he was sounding like a chipmunk and his head looked like it was about to catch on fire.

"Brains, Brains, Brains!" shouted Jeremie.

"Hey, give it a rest already!" snapped Wheelie before smacking Brains upside the head.

Brains blinked as the smoke from his head subsided. He looked around and asked, "What were we talking about?"

"Something about teleportation," said Yumi.

"Was it? Huh, lost my train of thought," said Brains.

"I think you hit his head too hard," said Odd to William.

"What was I supposed to do? Coax him off your head with a flute?" retorted William.

"Where is that piece you knocked off?" asked Wheelie.

"Uh, here it is," said Odd, pulling the busted-up piece of metal from his pocket.

"Hey! That's my primary memory bank!" cried Brains.

"No wonder he can't remember much about himself," said Yumi.

"He must be running on Jeremie's laptop's memory," said Aelita, "That's why he knows so much about Lyoko."

"And why he overheats when he thinks too much," said Ulrich.

"Wheelie, you think it can be repaired?" asked Jeremie.

Wheelie looked at the broken memory bank for a bit, "I don't know, it's pretty banged up. He'll probably have to get a new one."

"That will have to wait," said Jeremie, "If the Decepticons, or whoever sent him and Lockdown, know the supercomputer's here, we have to move it."

"Uh, Jeremie, the supercomputer isn't exactly a mobile model," said Yumi.

"Of course not, at least not with all this hooked up to it," said Brains, "But it'll be simple to move when we disconnect all the wires."

"Whoa, whoa, disconnect?" said Odd, "Do you have any idea how long that would take?"

"Not long at all, not long at all," said Brains before walking over to the supercomputer. He lifted a panel on the floor besides it and started effectively dismantling it. "Just cut the hardlines and it'll lift right out. It's better off without them anyways. Too messy, too overdone, can be done much better with lesser wires. Will need some Cybertronian work, plenty of that at Autobot base."

"Hey, wait a minute," said William, "Who says you're coming along?"

"For all we know, you could still be a spy," said Odd.

"No, I'm not," said Brains, "My allegiance programming was purged along with most of my memories. I am currently unaligned at the moment. But since you are working with the Autobots now, I'll probably be joining them shortly. Besides, I'm pretty sure my old masters would have me dismantled if I went back. Don't want that. I belong to Jeremie now. Wherever he goes, I go."

"Huh, wouldn't have expect him to be so loyal to me," said Jeremie.

"It's probably from how well you treated your laptop," said Aelita.

"Hmm…perhaps," said Jeremie, "By the way, how did you manage to merge all those pieces together?"

"I have no idea," said Aelita.

"So, I think we better call NEST and tell them to get ready to deliver some hardware," said Odd.

Yumi looked at the walls and said, "This'll take a long time to dismantle."

"We don't need the wiring," said Brains, "Clumsy inefficient stuff, can be replaced with better Cybertronian technology. Don't bother about the wires, leave them. No, wait, shouldn't be left lying back here, might fall into irresponsible hands, wrong hands, enemy hands. Take them, yes, but mainly recycling. Melt them down, make something new, something better. Shouldn't waste, too valuable."

"And I thought you gibbered a lot when you were on the computer," said Ulrich.

…

In the dark meeting room, the five shrouded figures were conversing with the video screen again. "Well, this has been yet another fiasco," said one of the figures.

"Another failure at capturing the girl," said another.

"On the contrary, this day has worked out exactly as I planned it," said the voice in the screen.

"But sir, Lockdown has failed in both his objectives. The brain unit has been destroyed," said one of the figures.

"It has done what it needed to," said the voice, "I'm not surprised that it was destroyed before it could return. But it has collected the data we needed and transmitted it. I trust that it's secure in our mainframe now."

"Yes sir," said another of the shadowy figures, "We're already working on cracking the security measures. All of Hopper's data and more will be ours within 24 hours."

"Good," said the voice, "For once, things are working in my favor. Now that we have the data, all we need is the girl. She is literally the key to complete my plan."

"But she'll be at the Autobot base," said the one figure who hadn't spoken yet, "She'll be heavily guarded there."

"The Autobots will not be standing in my way for long," said the voice, "We are so close to completing the plan. The Autobots and Decepticons have provided convenient diversions for long enough. It's time to finish this. Prepare two of our drones with the assassination programming."

"Are you sure this is wise?" asked one of the figures, "The Autobots and the Decepticons are sure to retaliate."

"Yes, but they'll be in complete disarray once their leaders are offline."

* * *

Finally, another chapter update. I'm sorry this took so long to get up, but this one went through a pretty extensive rewrite. This was mainly because of Dark of the Moon. Originally, I was going to have Dirt Boss and Hightower be attacking the factory while Lockdown was there, but then I decided to make the events of _Nefarious_ canon, and Dirt Boss kicked the bucket then.

The other big reason for rewriting this chapter is because I wanted to include Brains in this story. And since I'm not having Dark of the Moon and its related stories as part of this story's continuity, I had to make up a different origin for Brains. As you can see, I based his 'rebirth' off of how Animated Dirt Boss came to life. I had Mudflap do the smashing since I thought it would be appropriate seeing as he and Brains share the same voice actor the same way Skids and Wheelie do. I altered his personality a bit as well, adding a bit of B.E.N. from Treasure Planet and Mordin Solus from Mass Effect. He'll pretty much serve the same function here as Giru in Dragonball GT.

Of course, you'd recognize Lockdown. I gave him the same cloaking tech he's said to possess in Transformers Animated. I'm not sure if it was mentioned if the ROTF version has it too, but I don't see any particular reason why not.

In case you were wondering, the sigil glyph is based partially off of how Cyclonus signed all those forms in the G1 cartoon episode 'Webworld'. This is going to be important later, so you might want to remember this.

Anyways, the next chapter won't require that much revision and it won't be as long until it's up. Until then, keep an eye out for it and please review.


	8. Strike from the Back

**Chapter 8: Strike from the Back**

Two of the shadowy men entered a sizeable room. The walls were lined with mechanical pods, each about the size of a full grown man. The pods' designs were clearly of an incredibly advanced technology, though the complex intricateness seemed almost impossible for them to be made by man. To say nothing of what each pod contained, though the darkness of the room made it hard to see through the glass-like front.

"These things always give me the creeps," said one of the men.

"Considering they're alien robots, I think that's expected," said the other.

"Yeah, but these things in particular," said the first, "I just can't stand them."

"No wonder you wouldn't come in here without me," said the other.

"As if we had any choice," snapped the first, "Just be glad we're only letting two out."

"You think will really be enough?" asked the second.

"I hope so. I'd hate to see them all out," said the first.

"You know there are a lot more where these come from," said the second.

"Don't remind me," said the first, "Let's just program their targets and get it over with."

The two men went to a pair of consoles in the middle of the room. They quickly typed in the necessary codes for activating two of the pods. Lines of digital codes streamed across the screens of the console. On both screens, a picture of a different robotic head appeared. One head had a near-human face which was mostly surrounded by a blue helmet with sharp crests where the ears might have been, the optics glowing a peaceful blue. The other head was entirely different. The entire head was a silvery grey, including the angled helmet. The face was considerably demonic, with sharp teeth and burning red eyes.

At the same time, two of the pods were starting to make warming-up sounds. Parts of the pods were sliding, turning, and folding out of the way as it opened. From inside both of the pods, a pair of brilliant orange optics lit up.

"You have your targets," said one of the shadowy men, "Terminate them."

…

Any outsider who happened to see the convoy of vehicles heading into the French countryside would have commented it was a very unusual-looking one. Nine military trucks drove closely in front of, besides, and behind three armored vans. Of course, this might not be too unexpected for some, but the really odd-looking part was the three 'civilian cars' that were also part of the convoy and 'driven' by young adults who clearly didn't look military, save one. Of course, the cargo might not have been what an observer would suspect either.

"I can't believe we disassembled the lab so quickly," said Aelita.

"Yes, I would have thought it would have taken more than a few days," said Jeremie.

"For you humans, maybe," said Brains, "But you got us Cybertronians to take care of the heavy-lifting."

"What do you mean 'us Cybertronians'?" demanded Volt, "Me and the twins were pulling up all the pieces."

"Hey, if I weren't there, you'd have damaged most of it without knowing how to properly uninstall it," said Brains.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out," said Jolt.

Brains gave a mechanical snort and muttered, "Why do there have to be so many soldiers instead of scientists?"

Jeremie decided to push the subject forward. "So, is the supercomputer really that important?" he asked, "I mean, I know it has Lyoko and the Return to the Past program, but is it really worth that much to the Decepticons?"

"Well, being able to rewind time as much as you like would certainly be something worth fighting over to possess," said Jolt.

"It's not without limits," said Aelita, "If a person dies, the program won't rewind time back any further than that. I'm not sure why, but we've been fortunate enough to prevent that from happening."

"True," said Brains, "Which makes it all the less likely for the Decepticons to want it. Even if they could get it working for them, they aren't the kind to avoid killing others for very long."

"Yeah, I'd place money on whoever sent those thugs and that dragon thing to kidnap you," said Jolt.

"That's not too hard to believe," said Jeremie, "You mentioned that Lockdown was a bounty hunter. It may even be probable that they hired him as well."

"Can we not talk about this right now?" asked Aelita, "It's been a long day and I think I need to rest a while."

"Rest? What do you mean you need to rest? I'm the one who's been keeping Lockdown ou-" Jolt was cut off when Jeremie hit the power button on the radio.

"As soon as we're back at NEST, I'm sure you can find a room," said Jeremie.

The radio switched itself on and said, "That was rude."

"Frankly, I don't mind a little reprieve from your chattering too," said Brains.

…

About 40 minutes later, the convoy was entering the NEST base. Jolt and the twins let their passengers out before changing back to their robot forms and stepping inside to let the trucks in. The Autobots then walked off 'to get a recharge'. Presently, Agent Simmons walked up to them. "Well, well," he said, "Seems your father built something really special."

"My father was a genius," said Aelita, "I don't think any other person could have designed it."

"Probably not," said Simmons, "More than likely because they didn't have the same source of inspiration."

"Yeah, nothing like studying alien tech to really give you an idea of making a theory-shattering supercomputer," said Odd.

"Yes, but it goes a lot deeper than that, son," said Simmons.

"What do you mean?" asked Ulrich.

Simmons was about to reply when there was a thud of large footsteps approaching. They looked up to see Ironhide walking towards them. "Sorry to break up the conversation, but there are bigger people they need to talk to," said the black robot.

"Really? It can't wait a few minutes?" said Simmons, "I'm that unimportant that you can brush aside my position when it gets in your way."

"Join the club, pal," said Wheelie.

"When Prime's said his thing, you can get back to your own business," said Ironhide.

"Wait, Prime, as in Optimus Prime?" asked William, "Leader of the Autobots?"

"What brings the big bot here?" asked Odd.

"Seeing how this area's becoming such a hotspot of activity, Prime said it would be best if he were here," said Ironhide.

"I suppose you filled out the forms for the translocation of all the Autobots?" stated Simmons.

Ironhide looked a bit shifty before saying, "That's Scattorshot's job. I have too much on my servos to handle it."

Simmons looked amused before muttering, "She's not gonna like that."

"She? Who's she?" asked Yumi.

"If I know her, she won't be that far behind," said Simmons, "So when's your big boss supposed to get here?"

"In a few minutes, they were getting ready to airdrop when they called," said Ironhide.

"Airdrop? As in they are jumping out of a plane?" asked William.

"It's a secret base, we can't have a landing strip," said Ironhide.

"But, airplane drops, really?" said Odd, "Don't you guys have a spaceship you can fly around the world or some kinda portal that can take you to any set of coordinates on Earth?"

Ironhide gave Odd an odd look and said, "I think you've been watching too many of those…those… What are they called again?"

"Cartoons?" suggested Brains.

"Right, even the name sounds silly…wait…" Ironhide peered down at Brains, "Who are you?"

"Brains, the newest member of the Autobots," said Wheelie.

"What? Another defective drone defecting?" snorted Ironhide.

Wheelie and Brains glared at Ironhide. "Hey, who you callin' defective?" snapped Wheelie.

"Yeah, I bet I have more processing power than you have photon charges," snapped Brains.

Suddenly, the two small robots found themselves facing a huge cannon with several spinning barrels focused on them. "Really? Care to see how fast my photon charges are?" said Ironhide.

"Hey, hey!" snapped Simmons, "Save the ammo for the big bad bots."

"Besides, Brains knows how to work the supercomputer better than anyone," said Jeremie, "We'll need him to get it set back up again."

Ironhide looked annoyed before putting away his cannon. "Shoot only Decepticons, what's the point of a big cannon if you aren't allowed to intimidate a pair of…" grumbled Ironhide as he walked off.

"He's pretty hot-blooded for a robot," said Aelita.

"Ironhide's a soldier, 100%," said Simmons, "And he's been at it for 100,000 years or something. Fortunately, we have other Autobots who can handle diplomacy better." The sound of a large truck honking could be heard up the tunnel towards the surface. "Ah, seems like the real diplomats have arrived."

The gang looked up the tunnel as they heard someone driving down it. Presently, a blue Mercedes drove down, followed closely by what looked like a Hummer that has been retrofitted as an emergency rescue vehicle with a florescent green paintjob. The two vehicles parked to the side to make room for the much larger one coming. It was a big rig truck that was mainly blue, except for the red and orange flames painted on its front. Of course, the truck was recognizable to everyone who saw it on TV, even without the Autobot insignia above the truck's grill.

The truck parked in front of them before it started transforming. The nose of the cab split into two arms while the bottom side of the truck started folding up into itself and rising the shifting cab higher. Quite soon, the bottom half had folded into a pair of mostly blue legs with the wheels of the truck on its flanks. The cab itself had compressed into a torso with the windows over its pectorals and the fuel tanks and smokestacks on its back. The head of the robot rose up, wearing a blue helmet with sharpened 'antennas' on the side. It was wearing a mouthplate at first, but it split and moved aside to reveal a more humanlike face.

At the same time, the other two vehicles were transforming as well. The Hummer unfolded most of its backside into a pair of legs before it jumped to its feet as the front was folding up. The grill and emergency lights fitted together before spinning around to form the chest as the head swiveled into place.

With the Mercedes, the roof of the car flipped backwards before joining the rear in forming the legs. The front spun around as it lowered and shifted, arms forming out of the underside. The grill settled into place on the chest while the headlights wrapped over the shoulders to flank the grill. A head popped out of the top of the chest and settled into place. A curious thing about this robot's head was that it possessed wiry 'hair' like Brains and had what looked like a pair of spectacles.

Then the truck knelt down to look at the group more closely. His optics focused on Aelita and he said in a deep voice, "Are you Aelita Schaeffer, daughter of Waldo Schaeffer and Anthea Hopper?"

Aelita was almost too astounded and awed to respond, "Y-yes."

"My name is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. We have heard many things about you and your friends."

"Hopefully more good things than bad things," said Ulrich.

"Puzzling things to say the least," said the Hummer robot.

"Yes, I'm very anxious to have a look at this supercomputer," said the Mercedes robot in a somewhat British accent, "I bet I'll find all sort of crackerjack things in there."

Optimus gestured toward the Hummer robot and said, "This is my medical officer, Ratchet." He gestured to the other, "And our chief mechanical engineer, Wheeljack."

"Mechanical engineer?" asked Yumi, "What kind of things to you build?"

"Oh, loads of things," said Wheeljack, "Improved vehicle designs, advanced spying equipment, new weapons to give those Decepticons a good run for their money."

"The testing of which usually involves me patching him up afterwards," said Ratchet in a dry tone.

"Risks are all a part of experimenting," said Wheeljack, "Learning from mistakes is just as important as learning from successes."

"You're not going to dismantle the supercomputer, are you?" asked Jeremie.

"Of course not, I know how to do my job," said Wheeljack, "Once I've got it properly hooked up, I can learn more about its structure through its data."

"And I'll be there to give a second opinion," said Ratchet.

"Ok, it makes sense why those guys are here, but why are you here?" asked Odd, looking at Optimus.

"Ratchet and Wheeljack's scientific knowledge is indeed valuable here, but there is more going on than examining an usual Earth device," said Optimus, "If the Decepticons are becoming active in this location or there is a third faction rising, I will be needed here if the battlefronts are relocating."

"You think all the Decepticons are going to be coming here?" asked Ulrich.

"Not all of them," said Optimus, "I can think of a few who are too preoccupied elsewhere to moving anywhere else."

…

The savannas of Africa are widely regarded as the largest and most untamed wilderness on Earth. The ageless grasslands stretch over many African countries and provide habitats for hundreds of species. It also provides hiding places for unwanted intruders.

In a remote area of the Namibian savanna, a very unusual camp has been set up. Anyone who stumbled across it would notice that there was no food or water stored anywhere. They'd also notice the large piles of scrap metal piled in particular arrangements. Most of all, they'd notice the crude seats formed from stone and steel that were scaled for much larger beings.

But these interlopers would have never lived to tell anyone else about this strange camp. Not because they were hopelessly lost, but because of the camp's main resident; a large metal giant whose red optics burned with hatred for this world he was trapped on and the impudent natives who allied with his sworn enemies. In his secret African lair, Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, brooded over his exile.

This day, Megatron stomped around his camp, itching to tear something apart. Unfortunately for him, the wildlife has long learned to stay away. Not even the vultures would try to feed on the carcasses of Megatron's kills. Any bird would become a flying target.

But slaughtering animals wouldn't truly sate Megatron's bloodlust. No, what he really wanted to kill was an Autobot, Prime most of all. He was too tender with Optimus the first time he killed him. The second time will be much more thorough and drawn-out. It won't be possible for Optimus to be revived then. Megatron will make sure Optimus Prime will die the most painful way possible. No, the second most painful. The Witwicky boy will suffer the worst for his interfering.

Megatron uttered a snarl as his servos clenched. Even as his metal fingers tightened, a new source of rage sprang to his mind. His right hand, though equally strong as his left one which was easily capable of crumbling stone, still felt weak. The reason was simple enough: there were no weapons installed. His arm was badly damaged in the Battle of Egypt. In order to save it, offensive capabilities had to be sacrificed for functionality. Yes, it was flexible and mobile as ever, but with the absence of his fusion cannon and his death-lock claw, it felt so weak.

But that had not been the only insult and injury Optimus had given him. As if removing his arm wasn't bad enough, that accursed Optimus had shot Megatron in the face with his own fusion cannon before he removed it. Megatron remembered well the agony and indignity. Of course, his face could be healed, but not as fast as his arm. He can see with his right optic, but most of the right side of his face was badly scarred.

The sound of approaching wheels diverted Megatron from his increasingly-infuriating brooding. He looked up to see his medic Flatline approaching. Given his somewhat morose attitude and the outcome of several of his less-than-successful experimenting, Flatline had appropriately chosen the form of a hearse for his Earth vehicle form. The Decepticon medic transformed to robot mode and said, "Lord Megatron, I trust you are feeling better today."

Megatron gave Flatline an annoyed look. "Considering I'm stripped of weapons, a fully-functional vehicle mode, and half of my face, I think you can guess how I'm feeling," growled Megatron.

"As I have mentioned previously, your transformation abilities are not that hampered," said Flatline, "Your tank mode's major defect at the moment is the inability to take flight successfully."

Megatron's glare intensified, "And what use is a tank without a functioning cannon?"

"That may soon change," said Flatline, "While the cosmetic damage and aerodynamic handicap has yet to be fully treated, there is a remedy for your lack of a weapon. Your arm may not be able to incorporate a weapon into its structure, but that does not mean you cannot use one."

Flatline produced a container that might be considered the Cybertronian equivalent of a briefcase. The container clicked open and panels slid apart to reveal a rectangular block made of several segments of metal.

Megatron looked at the block with dubiousness, "This is the new weapon for me to use? Hardly a suitable replacement for my fusion cannon."

"On the contrary, this is a replacement fusion cannon," said Flatline, "We have redesigned into a more compact and removable form."

Flatline's colleague, Scalpel, crawled up onto his fellow medic's shoulder. "It now operates on a separate power source zen your own energy supply. Ze subspace fuel linkage insures zat it vill not run out of ammunition," said Scalpel.

Megatron picked up the block and looked at it. "And how am I supposed to use this cannon when there is no trigger or barrel?" he demanded.

"You don't hold it. You attach it like this," said Flatline before taking the block and attaching it to Megatron's right forearm. Megatron studied the block before feeling his circuits connecting to its systems. With little more than a thought, the block expanded and folded out into a large cannon.

"As you can see, it's designed to interface with your circuitry," said Flatline, "As you have to do is think about firing and it will act."

"Impressive," said Megatron, "Now for a little target practice." He searched around for anything he could blast with his new weapon.

Just then, his audio receptors picked up the sound of jet engines. He looked up in the sky for any sign of an aircraft. He soon spotted a jet flying from the east and it appeared that it was lowering its altitude. Megatron smirked and said, "So, a human pilot has just stumbled across my base. It will be the last mistake he ever makes." He aimed his cannon at the jet and prepared to fire.

Almost as if the pilot could tell what Megatron was thinking, which wasn't too hard to guess considering he had his cannon aimed and ready to fire, the jet suddenly banked hard to the right, allowing a clear view of its topside. It was quite clearly an F-22, but the fuselage was covered in very strange markings that didn't look Earthly at all. Megatron recognized the markings and gave a growl of frustration as he lowered his cannon.

The F-22 close to the camp and lowered further as if it was preparing to land. But 50 feet from the camp, it suddenly flipped downwards as its chassis split, folded, and rearranged. A pair of birdlike feet landed not 20 feet away from Megatron, supporting a robot that had the fighter jet's cockpit in the middle of his chest and Cybertronian tattoos covering his body. "I trust you are feeling well today, Lord Megatron," said Starscream with a hint of sarcasm.

Megatron growled and said, "You should be grateful I didn't blast you anyways after you showed your identity."

"Is your energy signature detector still not operational?" asked Starscream in mock surprise, "I would have assumed that would have been among the first systems you would seek to repair."

"Repairing my arm is extremely important. You know how much losing an arm can be painful. Does yours still ache where Optimus chopped it?" retorted Megatron, allowing a snide tone in his voice.

Starscream glared at Megatron and said, "Master, there are important things to be concerned about than your nursing back to health. The Autobots are growing bolder and think they are gaining a greater advantage."

"Once I am fully healed, I shall prove them how wrong they are, no sooner," said Megatron.

"You waste so much time with rebuilding," said Starscream, "You should just scan a vehicle and allow your protoform systems to reset your body to a fully operational state."

"And take the form of one of those human-designed inadequate machines?" snarled Megatron, "You may be willing to stoop to camouflage yourself, but I shall not forsake my Cybertronian heritage."

"But an Earth vehicle would draw much less attention," said Starscream.

"And a fighter jet wouldn't?" said Megatron with a smirk, "Not to mention one with a decidedly unearthly paintjob."

Starscream glared and said, "I have not forsaken my heritage either. These markings are a sign of honor, one that you've clearly forgotten about in your long stay from Cybertron."

Megatron gave a low growl and prepared to blast Starscream before Flatline said, "Starscream does prove a point. If you took on a different alternate mode, your injuries would be significantly easier to heal. And there is also the gained element of surprise to consider."

"I shall return to my troops in my Cybertronian form, nothing less," snarled Megatron.

"Your troops are losing faith in the sight of their master's negligence," said Starscream, "How can they feel protected if you can't even prevent Soundwave's kidnapping?"

"Soundwave has not been kidnapped," said Megatron, "He is the best communication officer on any side of this war and an exceptionally capable warrior. The idea that someone could capture him against his will is preposterous."

"Then where is our great spymaster, all-knowing Megatron?" said Starscream, sarcasm reappearing in his voice.

"Obviously he is operating on radio silence to investigate something of great significance," said Megatron, "Soundwave will reappear when he brings me his new information."

Starscream glared at Megatron and said, "Stubborn as ever. Your clinging to the past is hampering your ability to adapt to this world. What good is a leader who won't accept change and recognize new threats and solutions?"

Megatron gave a snort of disbelief and said, "New threats? Like your groundless theories about a 'third faction' or the importance of a human female of peculiar coloration? I did not become leader by listening to obviously-preposterous ideas."

Starscream stomped away from Megatron and thought, _'Says the gullible fool who believed The Fallen's promise to make him a Prime. Soon, Megatron, you'll make a grievous oversight and then the Decepticons shall a proper forward-thinking leader.'_ He shifted into his fighter jet mode and took off.

Megatron watched Starscream take off and said, "If he weren't such a competent fighter, I would have scrapped him a long time ago. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't make Soundwave second-in-command." He then turned to Flatline and said, "Well, now that we are free of distractions, I believe it's time to start on my treatment again."

Flatline sighed before taking out a tool from his inner compartment, "As you wish, my lord."

…

Meanwhile, the group was having another meeting. This time, it was in a larger area so that Optimus Prime could be attending. Ratchet and Wheeljack were busy examining the supercomputer in another room. The table the kids were sitting at wasn't as formal as the one in Simmons' office. Frankly, it was just a folding table with similar chairs, but that wasn't nearly as important as what they were discussing.

"So what you guys have found out so far is the supercomputer is definitely Cybertronian," said Odd.

"Cybertronian-inspired," corrected Simmons, "It was built by Schaeffer, but it is definitely based on alien tech."

"Big deal, you guys have built a lot of stuff by reverse-engineering Megatron, right?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, some, but this computer is in a whole other league," said Simmons.

"Even by studying Megatron, your race wouldn't have been able to create a supercomputer of such caliber for another 50 years or more," said Wheelie.

"Well, Aelita's dad was a genius," said Jeremie, "He probably had a very big breakthrough in his research."

"I feel it is more than that," said Optimus, "Waldo Schaeffer was exposed to Energon directly from the Allspark. I believe it may have a major effect on his mental capabilities."

"So, you're saying the Allspark planted the design of the supercomputer directly into my dad's brain?" asked Aelita.

"That is not beyond questioning," said Optimus, "And neither is it completely unprecedented."

"Sector 7 was first formed after a discovery was made," said Simmons, "An arctic explorer, Captain Archibald Witwicky, stumbled across the frozen form of Megatron, as you remember."

"He accidentally activated Megatron's navigation system, which caused the coordinates of the Allspark's location to become imprinted upon his glasses," said Optimus, "But his physiology was not fully compatible."

"It made him eventually lose his sanity, and then his sight," said Simmons, "Before he went completely blind, he obsessively drew hundreds of Cybergliphics on any available surface. He sent the last of his days in a mental institute."

"Then his great-grandson, Sam Witwicky inadvertently absorbed the Allspark's knowledge when he used it to destroy Megatron," said Optimus, "It lay dormant for a time, but eventually surfaced and started affecting his behavior. Fortunately, the Allspark's power was transferred from him after he revealed the location of the Tomb of the Primes."

"So he got a brain booster from the Allspark, what's the big deal?" asked Odd.

"The big deal is that he got it through Energon irradiation," said Simmons, "Humans can be affected Energon on the genetic level. Apparently, the reason Sam didn't go completely cuckoo when the Allspark started acting up in him was because Archibald's DNA was altered enough for it to pass down and make Sam more compatible."

"And since Aelita's mom and dad were both zapped, that means her DNA has been affected by Energon too," said Wheelie.

"Is that why she can blast people now?" asked William.

"It seems that way," said Optimus, "Which may be part of the reason why she is so sought after."

Aelita shuddered and said, "Those men in black wanted to experiment on my DNA? I thought it was just my dad's computer."

Wheelie thought and said, "Well, partially that, but maybe…"

Just then, a door opened and a man in a blue suit walked in. He looked to be about in his mid-to-late thirties with brown hair. "Mr. Simmons, we have uncovered some very interesting data," said the man with a light German accent.

"Who's this guy?" asked Ulrich.

"Dutch, the most capable and dependable personal assistant you'll ever find," said Simmons before turning to Dutch and asking, "What have you got for me?"

"Well, the capabilities of this supercomputer are astronomical. Not only is the virtual world inside fully detailed and finely constructed, but the methods of digitalizing and materializing matter is mind-boggling," said Dutch.

Yumi rolled her eyes and said, "Tell us something we don't know."

"How about you first?" said Simmons, "Why did Hopper go through all the trouble of designing this Lyoko and the virtualizion/materialization program?"

"Daddy probably expected the men in black to come for him one day," said Aelita, "So he made that world so we could hide if they ever find us. I also heard that he designed it to put an end to Project Carthage."

"Ah, Carthage," said Simmons, "I had a feeling he'd try to something about that."

"What's the big deal about Project Carthage anyways?" asked Odd.

"Project Carthage was designed to intercept enemy communications," said Simmons before glancing up at Optimus, "One enemy in particular."

"I thought you guys were allies with the Autobots," said William.

"Son, we didn't know there were Autobots or Decepticons," said Simmons, "All we knew them as were N.B.E.'s. All we knew was that they were alien robots with potential for mass destruction. Would you have wanted to take a chance to see if they were friendly or not? Project Carthage was meant to pick up any extraterrestrial communications and translate it as best as we can. Admittedly, their language is hard to crack, but that didn't stop the splinter cell from taking all the data we had from it."

"If this splinter faction has managed to translate our cybernetic language, they would have gained much information," said Optimus, "It would seem your father was in the right of wanting to stop this project from falling into the wrong hands."

"I just wish he could have thought of everything," said Aelita, "He wasn't even remotely prepared for when XANA attacked us in Lyoko."

"Er, we have recovered some data on this XANA program as well," said Dutch, "And what we've found is quite disconcerting."

"Well, he was an organic-hating AI bent on world domination," said Yumi.

"That may not have been all," said Dutch, "Apparently, Waldo has based XANA's programming off of a bit of AI data we had gotten from Megatron. Ratchet says that the programming is comparable to an interlink avatar."

The reaction from Wheelie and Brains made it clear that this was something significant. "An interlink avatar?" said Wheelie, "He couldn't have been to control that."

"No wonder XANA turned on him," said Brains.

"Ok, I'll bite, what's an interlink avatar?" asked Jeremie.

"We Cybertronians each have a single mind contained within ourselves, like you humans," said Optimus, "But we are capable of extending it through lesser AIs called interlink avatars. Typically, they are used for extensive network searching, but they are capable of controlling less complex mechanisms. The Decepticons, in particular, with modified Cybertronian wildlife. Those animals have been given processor upgrades to have a fully conscious mind but are binary-bonded to another Cybertronian, giving them the ability to direct those animals and see and hear everything they hear. Soundwave is well-known for keeping a small menagerie of 'pets' that are his eyes and ears."

"That doesn't really explain why XANA went rouge," said Ulrich.

"Actually, it does," said Dutch, "Schaeffer may have been a genius, but he didn't know what he was using and couldn't control it properly." He took a glove out of his pocket and held it up. "Let's say that this is XANA as Schaeffer programmed it. A useable AI is very versatile, but Schaeffer only had a modicum of control over it." He wiggled one of the empty fingers of the glove with his other hand to demonstrate. "But if someone who knew how to properly work an interlink avatar access XANA," said Dutch as he put the glove on his hand, "They'd easily be able to seize control from Schaeffer and there'd be little he could do to stop it." He tried to move the now-occupied glove finger but could barely budge it.

Aelita gasped and said, "So you're someone else has been behind XANA all this time?"

"The evidence seems to point towards it," said Dutch, "But with XANA destroyed, there's no way to determine who was pulling his strings."

"But not just anybody could have been operating XANA," said Brains, "I don't think any human would know how to really control it. Only a Cybertronian could."

"So the Decepticons are behind it?" asked Yumi.

"I do not think so," said Optimus, "These events happened over 20 of your Earth years ago, before Starscream and his team arrived on Earth. The only Cybertronians that could be here would be the Seekers, but most of them are dormant."

"The who?" asked Odd.

"Ancient warriors, they've been here for ages," said Wheelie, "They used to search for stars to harvest for The Fallen, but then he sent them to look for the Tomb of the Primes. They've eventually gone into stasis lock from Energon depletion. Jetfire was one, but then he kicked the bucket. Ransack may be active, but that old fogey ain't likely to be XANA's puppetmaster."

"Then there have been other Transformers on Earth," said Jeremie, "But wouldn't they have been trying to find the Allspark or Megatron?"

"Maybe they were looking for something else," suggested William.

"What else is there to find?" asked Odd.

"All good questions," said Simmons, "And you can bet my next two month's paychecks we're gonna get to the bottom of this. Of course, you kids might have to stay here a bit longer."

"What? But we were just going to give you information about the supercomputer. We _gave_ the supercomputer to you. Isn't that enough?" asked Yumi.

"Young lady, there are a lot of bad robots and men out there that would love to get their claws on you for all the info you have," said Simmons.

"No, they'll want me," said Aelita, "The dragon-bot came after me specifically."

"True, but it'll probably use your friends to get to you if it can't you by itself," said Dutch.

"Our base is available to you as long as you have need of it," said Optimus.

"You just-" started Yumi before a cell phone ringing was heard. The kids glanced at their cell phones to check if it was there.

Dutch took his phone out of his pocket and answered it, "Dutch here. Yes, yes, I know they've moved here. Yes, Optimus Prime is here. I can't say over the phone, someone could be… What? There's no need to… We're not trying to keep secrets from you. Yes, you are, but that doesn't mean… Fine, I'll let them know. We'll be seeing you soon then." Dutch hanged up and said, "Well, it's going to be more crowded around here. Director Mearings will be here in an hour and she just heard about Optimus repositioning here."

"Ah, great," moaned Wheelie, "I hoped she wouldn't come here."

"What's so bad about her?" asked Ulrich.

"Director Charlotte Mearings is our Director of National Intelligence back in the States," said Dutch, "She is our connection to the President and she has a bit of a…controlling nature."

"Meaning that she always want to be in charge of everything and that every bit of info goes through her first," said Wheelie, "When things go over her head, she won't stop bossing people around until she knows everything about the situation and gives her opinion on every bit of it."

"Mearings may be…forceful," said Optimus, "But she does mean well. She at least knows the importance of NEST better than her predecessor."

"She sounds as bad as 10 Jims," muttered Ulrich.

"Oh, she's not so bad, especially when you've gotten to know her as intimately as I have," said Simmons with a wide smile.

"Wait, intimately, you don't mean…" started Odd.

"Oh yes, we used to be pretty close. And let me tell you something…" started Simmons.

"Uh, I need to think over what's just happened," said Aelita quickly, getting up to leave.

"I better go with her," said Jeremie, standing up.  
"I better go call my parents to let them know I'm alright," said Ulrich.

"Mine too," said Yumi.

"I'm gonna see what they've got in the mess hall," said Odd.

"I think I'll go check out the armory," said William.

"I better show those two where to go," said Wheelie before changing to his toy truck mode.

"I had better get back to Ratchet and Wheeljack," said Dutch.

"I must prepare for Director Mearing's arrival," said Optimus Prime.

Simmons looked a bit perturbed that everyone suddenly found something else they'd better be doing. "You're really missing out on something!" he yelled as they left. Then he turned to Brains, who was still standing on the table. "Well, don't you have to go scuttling off somewhere?"

"Not really," said Brains, "So what do you know so much about the director?"

Simmons smiled and said, "Well, my little robotic friend, it all started back at a security conference in Quantico…"

…

Jeremie and Aelita walked out into a smaller hallway. "Quick thinking, Aelita," said Jeremie, "If there's one thing I don't want to know about, it's how that guy's love life."

"I wasn't just trying to find an excuse," said Aelita, a bit bitterly, "Jeremie, do you realize what XANA being an interlink avatar means?"

"That it was a particularly good thing that we did destroy him," said Jeremie, "If he had gotten that robot army ready for war…"

"No, Jeremie, we didn't destroy him, not the real him," said Aelita, her anguish quickly becoming apparent, "XANA was a puppet, someone else was responsible for all we've done. All we did was keep one Cybertronian from taking control though the Replikas. Jeremie, my father's murderer is still out there and we've barely done anything to him." Tears were now rolling down Aelita's cheeks.

Jeremie drew her close in a hug and said, "No, Aelita, we have done more. If we hadn't stopped XANA, his robots would have taken over the world. Your father didn't sacrifice himself for nothing. Independent AI or not, XANA had to be stopped. But I promise that whoever was working XANA, they won't get away with it and we'll make sure he gets just what he deserves."

"But Jeremie, how will we ever find who was XANA's master? He could be anyone or anywhere. And he's Cybertronian, so how can we…"

"I don't care if he's from Cybertron or Alpha Centauri," said Jeremie, "We have NEST and the Autobots. If they could take down The Fallen, they can handle XANA, or whatever his name really is. But more importantly, we have each other and as long as we all stay together, we can handle anything."

Aelita sniffed and said, "Thank you, Jeremie. I really needed to hear that."

"I'll always be here for you," said Jeremie.

Just then, the sound of sparking and the smell of smoke caught their attention. They both turned to see Brains staggering past them, his head smoking more noticeably than usual and a rather distant look on his face.

"Uh, are you ok, Brains?" asked Aelita.

Brains yelped and spun around. As soon as he saw Jeremie and Aelita, he seemed to calm down a bit. "Oh, it's just you two," he said, though he turned his head away to not look at them.

"You didn't stay to listen Simmons's story about-" started Jeremie.

"Don't say it!" snapped Brains, "I do not want to hear anything related to that, or human courtship, again. I need to debug my head." He staggered away, teetering a bit as he went down the hallway.

Jeremie shook his head and said, "There are some things that robots were never meant to know about."

"Like you reacted any better when I suggested-" started Aelita.

Much to Jeremie's relief, a voice on the intercom called out, "Director Mearings is entering the gate. All staff prepare for cross-examination, I mean, inspection."

"Well, I'm pretty sure she'll want to talk with us," said Jeremie, "We better head over there."

Aelita sighed and muttered, "Why do I even try to bring it up?" Still, the two of them started walking towards where they first entered the base.

…

The rest of the group, including Simmons and Optimus Prime were already there and waiting. As Aelita and Jeremie stood by them, Aelita said, "Well, she couldn't possibly be stricter than Jim, right?"

"One key difference: Jim is amiable," said Odd.

"He's right, Mearings doesn't show her sensitive side very often," said Simmons, "Not without…"

"No! Not again! I'm not hearing it!" yelled Brains, covering his head.

"That's all the warning I'll ever need," said Ulrich.

Then everyone's attention turned to the Rolls-Royce that was coming down the ramp. It was a fancy car with a navy blue paintjob, something you'd be expecting an executive to ride in. As the car came to a stop, two women got out of the back. One was middle-aged, with her brown hair in a business bun, horn-rimmed glasses on her face, and a crisp business almost the same color as the Rolls-Royce. The other woman was Asian, younger, and dressed in a similar manner except her suit was black and she was toting three different bags.

Simmons flashed a smile and said, "Charlotte, you-"

"It's Director Mearings to you and you'd better be sure to call me that when you speak," said Mearings sharply, "And you have a lot to answer for. Repositioning headquarters, bringing in civilians, tampering with unauthorized technology, have you forgotten the eighth amendment to the Autobot-Earth Agreement?"

Simmons paused and said, "I don't think I've gotten the memo about that. Last I recall, there were only seven."

Mearings sighed before turning to her aide and said, "Get it out of the bag."

The aide looked confused and asked, "Which bag?"

"Black, Japanese silk, main pocket," said Mearings, sounding a bit more exasperated.

"Oh, right," said the aide before opening said bag and taking out a sheet of paper before handing it to Mearings.

Mearings adjusted her glasses and read, "All new information of top priority is to be channeled directly to the Security Director and must be thoroughly discussed before action is to be taken. Everything that's been happening on this side of the world has only been reaching my attention now. We may be an unconventional division, but that does not mean we can ignore protocol when we miss meetings."

"All due respect, ma'am, things have been happening so fast that we couldn't have been able to send all the information to you in time," said William.

Director Mearings fixed William with a sharp look and said, "Ma'am? Do I look like a 'ma'am' to you?"

"Er, no ma'am, I mean, sir, I mean, miss," said William quickly.

"Don't forget…" Mearings paused to check William's stripe, "Private, I am the Security Director. I don't care what heroics you have accomplished, I can take you down a rank if you get out of order."

"Er, private is bottom rank…miss," said William.

"There's always dishonorable discharge," said Mearings before turning to the others, "Am I making myself clear?" There was a quick murmur of understanding. "Good, now, I want to hear everything, from the start, in detail, and no skipping forward."

"Shouldn't we better-" started Ulrich.

"No, we aren't," interrupted Mearings, "We will not be doing anything new until I am brought up to speed. Now where is the discussion room?"

As the group moved on, the Rolls-Royce's chauffer turned the car around before heading into the garage. However, the driver hadn't notice that the spare wheel on the trunk was loose, or rather wriggling loose. Also unseen was the Rolls-Royce logo being replaced by a familiar symbol…

…

Meanwhile, in the hidden African base, Flatline was busy working on Megatron's battered form. Progress has been pretty straightforward. The Decepticon leader's right shoulder was almost completely repaired. By the end of the day, the repaired circuitry would allow Megatron to properly change into tank mode with a functional cannon.

Megatron, however, was not nearly as patient as Flatline. "Are you finished with that shoulder already? It is my face that needs the most repairs," he snapped.

"As I have told you, I am focusing on restoring full vehicular functionality before I move on to the aesthetics," said Flatline.

"Then why are my flight protocols still offline?" snapped Megatron.

"I am working up to that," said Flatline, "Your tank mode should be functional for ground combat before it can take flight again."

Megatron growled and said, "If only I had my original space jet mode, I wouldn't have to wait through all this tediousness."

"My Lord, there is nothing wrong with having a land-based vehicle mode," said Flatline, "I mean, I can't fly, but that doesn't mean…"

"You are a field medic, not a commanding officer," snapped Megatron, "As leader, my rightful position is in the air. Do not try to patronize me or you'll be struggling to move along the ground."

"Erm, perhaps we should try patching your processor circuitry," said Flatline, "Dead End, could you fine me a piece of aluminum?"

Dead End was Flatline's assistant. At least he was for the time being. Nobody liked having Dead End around them for too long. His tendency to wax macabre and literally living off of others was enough to give even Decepticons the creeps. As such, he was constantly shuffled to another position whenever his co-workers couldn't stand him any longer. However, he's proven himself adapt at finding useable materials so he had a pretty steady job with Flatline, for now at least. Not to mention his sports car mode was one of the fastest among the Decepticons.

Dead End wandered over to the scrap pile and started looking for anything useful aluminum. Bits and pieces have been stolen from human junkyards. Some…are fresher. Dead End tossed aside part of a motorcycle and spotted something odd. It looked like one of those air conditioning units that human used because of their intolerance of heat. However, this one looked brand new. Dead End was pretty sure that nothing had been collected that was that new. Still, it had probably had some good aluminum to use.

However, just as Dead End was about to grab it, it quivered. And not because of a shifting of the scrapheap, but seemingly just from itself. Dead End quickly extended his blasters, but then the AC unit jumped right towards him, shifting as it went before landing on his face.

"Enough wasting time, are you finished or what?" snapped Megatron.

"Patience, Lord Megatron, I just need some aluminum to reinforce the circuitry," said Flatline.

"Then what are you waiting for?" snapped Megatron.

"My erstwhile assistant to return," said Flatline sourly before yelling, "Dead End, where are you? What could be so difficult about finding useable scrap aluminum?" There was a shuffling sound before Dead End suddenly stumbled into sight. "It's about time. Where's that aluminum?"

However, something was wrong. Dead End's movements were a bit erratic and jerky, as if he wasn't controlling himself. He stumbled towards Flatline and Megatron in an awkward way. It was then that Flatline noticed what looked like a pair of metallic wings on Dead End's back. "Dead End, what are you doing?" snapped Megatron, "Flatline told you to bring aluminum, not dance."

Suddenly, Dead End's eyes flared a sickly bright orange before he pointed his blaster right at Megatron. "Perish…Decepticon…leader…" he said in a restrained voice before firing.

…

It had taken a bit of time for the group to brief Director Mearings on what was going on. They tried to keep it as brief as possible, but Mearings demanded details on anything remotely vague. So it took the better part of an hour to get the whole story out.

"And why has this supercomputer not been reported in beforehand?" she demanded after they finished.

"Because that would have brought the Men in Black and they would have taken Aelita…" started Ulrich.

"The Men in Black are just an urban myth, there's no such thing," said Mearings sharply.

"Right…like there's no such thing as robots from outer space," said Odd.

Mearings gave Odd a sharp look and said, "The French government should have been informed as to the existence of the supercomputer. Its technology would have prevented many deaths when The Fallen revealed himself and the Decepticons. But I suppose we'll have to gleam as much as we can from its reverse-engineering so that…"

Quite suddenly, Aelita slammed her hands on the table and shouted, "That computer belonged to my father! No one is taking apart for any bigger reason that crumbs in the cracks! I won't allow you to make scrap metal out of it!"

Everyone stared at Aelita. Her friends may have known her for a long time, but they've never seen her yell at anyone like that before. And there was some undefinable energy in her voice that made even Wheelie and Simmons pause.

However, the shock wasn't enough to keep Mearings quiet for long. "Young lady, that machine was made with stolen technology and built with unauthorized funds. It should have been confiscated long ago before that virus-AI-shadow-whatever got loose."

"Actually, Franz Hopper built it privately with Sector Seven funds, and since Sector Seven never 'officially' existed, the funds had no true source," said Jeremie.

"And since it was built based on Cybertronian tech, Hopper didn't plagiarize since there wasn't any patent on it or even now, right Wheelie?" said Yumi.

"What do you mean unpatented? Just because we're from another planet doesn't mean we don't have…" started Wheelie before William flicked the back of his head, "Ow! I mean, no, I guess we didn't have a patent here."

"Actually, there's something we've dug up while looking for information on Hopper," said Simmons, pulling a sheet of paper out of his briefcase, "Turns out Waldo had made out a will before his wife disappeared. He clearly bequeathed that in the event of his death or disappearance, his wife and daughter would get all his possessions. Which would add up to his supercomputer, his house, and one box that has been kept in a bank vault for quite some time. Needless to say, all money in his account, which has collected quite a bit of interest over the years, is also hers." Simmons handed the will over to Aelita and said, "There's still some legal mumbo jumbo to go over, but we have more pressing engagements."

Aelita stared numbly at her father's will. How could she have not heard of this? Wouldn't her father have told her about this in case something would have happened? But then again, her father didn't anticipate a lot of things.

Just then, Mearings's aide walked in and said, "Um, excuse me, there's been a slight development."

"Is it that important?" snapped Mearings.

"Well, I suppose it might not be considered very important. Well, not important to this meeting but should be noted…"

"What is it already?" asked Mearings.

"Well, it's just that the spare tire on your car is missing," said the aide, "The other tires are still there, but the spare is gone. I asked the mechanics if they took it, but they claimed they haven't…"

"That's enough, we'll deal with it later," said Mearings. As soon as the aide left, she sighed and said, "As if I didn't have enough to worry about, now we've got jokers here who think vandalism is hilarious."

"Uh, are you sure that the tire was just stolen?" asked Yumi.

"Well it didn't just jump off and roll away," said Mearings.

"Aren't you forgetting the form of alien life we regularly deal with?" asked Simmons, gesturing towards Wheelie.

"Wait, you think the tire could have been a Decepticon spy or something?" asked Ulrich, "I know those guys can turn into cars, but tires?"

"Well, it wouldn't be a glamorous disguise, but if it'll let them sneak in, they'll use it," said Wheelie, "And it wouldn't be too hard for them to change into one neither. I once knew a guy named Scrounge who could turn into a wheel. A bit of an odd guy, but the things he could do with his fingers…"

Mearings didn't waste any time. She pulled out her cellphone and said, "Captain, we may have a breach. There could be a spy in the form of a spare tire rolling around. Yes, I know it sounds absurd, but we've seen strange things. Yes, full alert, nothing gets out of the base, find that tire."

…

As weapon master of the Autobots, Ironhide spent most of his time in his lab working on firearms for his fellow Autobots. Wheeljack was a capable engineer, but his prototypes had a tendency of backfiring. Besides, he spends most of his time working on tiny weapons for the humans.

Currently, Ironhide was working on a new set of cannons that basically served as a handheld version of the ones that were attached to his arms. While his main cannons rarely let him down, he knew all too well that it's always a good idea to have backups in case something got damaged in the middle of a fight. Now if only there was something to test these cannons on…

Ironhide paused when his audio receptors detected something. It sounded like one of his Autobot comrades rolling in vehicle mode or simply a human vehicle itself, but much smaller. He turned away from his worktable to see a lone wheel rolling across the floor. This definitely piqued Ironhide's curiosity. Why would anyone leave a spare wheel in here, let alone let roll around. He stepped towards the relatively small object and bent down to pick it up.

However, as he did, he noticed several crevices on the tire that he was pretty certain weren't that evident before. That became more noticeable as the wheel quickly started to expand and uncurl. Ironhide quickly aimed his cannon at the shifting wheel when it jumped right off the floor and onto his face.

…

With the threat of an intruder apparent, security quickly scrambled to secure the various advantage points a spy or saboteur would attempt to hit, namely the command center, the medibay, the computer rooms, and the armory. The armory was where Optimus Prime was heading himself. He was confident his old friend Ironhide would be able to protect the weapons, ammunition, and battle armor, but since it seemed like one of the most likely places a saboteur would go to, it was logical that more reinforcement may be needed.

The gang accompanied him to the armory. Arguably, it would have been more sensible to secure them in a saferoom for their own protection, but Optimus had a feeling that the children would have been a likely target for the intruder and he insisted they remain with him so he could protect them.

"So, exactly where do you get all the material for your weapons?" asked Odd, "I mean, I don't think that we have fuel for ray guns on Earth."

"We are capable of converting base materials to our needs," said Optimus, "But exactly how our weaponry works is not something humankind is ready for yet. If the knowledge of producing were known to a less scrupulous member of your race, not only is there a very likely chance the technology would be turned against us, but most assuredly it would be turned against other human beings."

"Ok, but what about simpler tech like hoverboards or jetpacks?" asked Odd.

"There has been some effort to develop a more compact air force, however, testing has been…difficult," said Optimus.

"Difficult how?" asked Jeremie.

"It would seem that the average human set of reflexes is not fully honed enough to handle the maneuverability and speed of advanced personal fight tech," said Optimus, "There is considerable training required before one of your kind can successfully operate a personal flight vehicle."

"No problem for us, we've had loads of training," said Odd, "I bet I can beat whatever hoverboard records you have."

"Actually jetpacks are the main focus as they are more compact and less easy to separate from…" started Optimus before a bang of metal hitting metal was heard. The gang looked up to see a shadow appear in the doorway up ahead. The shadow's owner lurched through, showing to be Ironhide. "Ironhide, what are you doing away from the armory. I thought you would stand to guard it."

However, Ironhide didn't seem quite like himself at the moment. He was stumbling forward like he wasn't sure how his feet were supposed to be positioned. As he came closer, he suddenly tripped and landed on one knee. That caused his upper body to lean forward enough for Aelita to glimpse something latched onto Ironhide's back. "Uh, Optimus, I don't think Ironhide's quite himself right now," said Aelita.

Optimus gave the old soldier a concerned look and asked, "Ironhide, are you alright?"

Ironhide lifted his head and instead of his normal bright blue, his optics were shining a fierce orange. "Perish…Autobot…leader…" he said in a restrained voice before aiming his right arm and firing at Optimus.

Optimus' surprise didn't hamper his reflexes and he quickly moved under the blast which exploded against the ceiling, sending a shower of concrete fragments down. "Get to cover!" shouted Optimus before Ironhide got up and charged at Optimus. The gang didn't need telling twice and quickly ducked into a janitor's closet nearby to avoid being squashed by the rogue Autobot.

Fortunately, Ironhide had rammed Optimus into a more open area allowing the Autobot leader more room to maneuver. The first he tried to do is remove Ironhide's cannons before they could cause serious harm. That was a bit of a challenge since Ironhide kept swinging his arms around and punching Optimus. However, Optimus was able to catch one punch and ripped off the cannon from his right arm. But then, Ironhide aimed the cannon on his left arm directly at Optimus' head. But before it could fire, the cannon seemed to shut down. Ironhide looked puzzled before Optimus grabbed that cannon and tore it off. Now left with only his fists, Ironhide tried his best to pummel Optimus.

Fortunately, the loud commotion drew the attention of the other Autobots and they soon entered the room. The gang had also followed, once the two clashing robots had passed the closet. "What is going on here?" asked Sideswipe.

"Ironhide's been possessed," called Ulrich.

"No, not possessed, he's been hijacked," said Aelita, pointing at Ironhide's back where what looked like a small jetpack was clamped onto him.

"I guess they really do need to work on their jetpack tech," said William.

"William, that has to be the intruder," said Yumi, "It's taken over Ironhide's motor controls or something."

"That reminds me of a movie I've seen: 'Attack of the Backpackers from Beyond'," said Odd.

This was more than enough info for the Autobots. Scattorshot, Ratchet, and Sideswipe ran in, grabbed Ironhide, and managed to pull him off of Optimus. However, the three of them were barely able to hold the possessed soldier. "We need to remove the device," said Ratchet as he changed his free hand into a circular saw. However, whatever was controlling Ironhide was having none of that and managed to toss the medic away. Skids and Mudflap ran in to hold down Ironhide, but he was able to swing Scattorshot around and knock the twins back onto their skidplates.

Jolt, who had been near the gang, unsheathed his whips and said, "Maybe I can zap it off."

"I don't think you'll be able to get a direct enough shot," said Jeremie, "He's moving way too fast."

"Wait, let me try something," said Aelita before trying to focus inward.

"What are you doing? You're not gonna try to do that energy thing again, are you?" asked Ulrich.

"It's worth a shot," said Aelita.

"But you don't know how you did it in the first place," said Yumi.

"I think I can guess," said Aelita before trying to feel for the energy within her. It was slow to respond and in that time, Sideswipe and Scattorshot have been thrown off. With no more impenitence, Ironhide lumbered to Optimus to finish what he started. Fortunately, Aelita had found that well of energy and she could feel it rising. "Jolt, electrify!" she called. Jolt shrugged before causing one of his whips to crackle with energy. Aelita's hands glowed pink and the electricity on Jolt's whip leaped out and struck the thing on Ironhide's back like a bolt of lightning. The effect was immediate, Ironhide let out a cry of pain before falling to his knees. The jetpack thing on his back crackled with energy before falling off.

"Wow, so the story's true," said Jolt, "And here I thought humans couldn't have electrokinesis."

"I'm…not sure…it it's the same," said Aelita.

"Uh, guys…" said William, pointing forward. The reason was obvious as the jetpack device that was clamped to Ironhide was transforming. Thrusters became legs, limbs unfurled, wings became hinged. Soon, the device had taken the form of a bipedal creature with small dinosaur-like arms, a rat-like tail, metal wings on its back, and a quite grotesque-looking head with blazing orange optics. Most people would have said it was a dragon, but Aelita thought that it roughly resembled the gargoyles that were perched on old cathedrals.

The gargoyle-bot glared at the gang, particularly Aelita and gave an angry screech before charging at them. Despite, the nervous anticipation of being attacked by an alien parasitic jetpack, Aelita couldn't help but notice the same altered Eye of XANA emblazoned on the creature's chestplate.

However, the group's panic was literally cut short when a bright orange blaze swept the air and neatly severed the creature's neck and removed the tops of its wings. However, the momentum it had already built kept it going forward, though more as a dying stumble than a deadly sprint. It soon hit the floor and kept rolling forward until it stopped at the gang's feet. The optics in the severed creature's head had already dimmed.

The humans looked up to see Optimus Prime sheathed the sword on his right arm. "Are you injured?" he asked.

"No, thanks to you," said Aelita.

"I also owe you thanks for preventing considerable more damage to myself and this location," said Optimus.

Ironhide was getting back to his feet, his eyes their normal blue again. "What was that thing?" he asked, rubbing his back where the parasite had latched on.

"It appears that we have found Director Charlotte's missing tire," said Optimus, noticing the black rubber on the creature's back.

Ironhide glared at it and said, "Troublesome little monster. I ought to smash it flat to make sure it is fully extinguished. Imagine, using my own body as an assassination attempt. I was fortunate that I could disable my cannons before it could get too many shots."

"Didn't think the Cons had weapons like that," said Jolt.

"Don't be so sure, that doesn't look like their insignia," said Aelita, pointing at the symbol on the dead creature's chest.

"That's like the one on the dragon-bot, isn't it?" asked Odd.

"Didn't you see it?" asked Aelita.

"Hello? Its fang-filled mouth was more attention-demanding," said Odd.

Scattorshot gently picked up the corpse and examined the chest plate. "Accept for scale of size, this is definitely a match for the marking on the unidentified aerial enemy we engaged," he confirmed.

"It would stand to reason that whoever sent the first assailant had also dispatched this assassin, apparently to eliminate myself," said Optimus.

"What makes you think it would have stopped there?" asked Sideswipe in a dark tone.

"This, along with Ms. Schaeffer's demonstration of power, proves beyond a doubt that she is an integral part of this mystery," said Optimus Prime, "We must direct all our attention and effort into solving this as quickly as possible. I can only hope the Decepticons are dealing with difficulties of their own and would be too engaged to attack us."

…

As Starscream flew to Megatron's hidden base, he practiced his speech in his head, _'Oh, our poor great leader, Megatron. Struck down by a cowardly assassination by the enemy I have tried so vainly to warn him of. As the new leader of the Decepticons, my first act will be to locate the perpetrator of this crime and exterminate with extreme prejudice. Then I shall lead my fellow Decepticons in our final crushing victory over the Autobots. Yeah, that sounds good.'_

He briefly reflected that he could have returned immediately after he received the emergency distress call about his leader being under attack. But he had to make sure he was flying from a different direction to make sure no prying humans would become suspicious. After all, the great Megatron would have been able to hold off an assassin even in a crippled state, couldn't he?

As soon as he spotted the campsite, he thought to himself _'Ok now, solemn face, solemn face.'_ With a flourish of metallic clacks, clinks, and clanks, Starscream transformed and landed. "Oh, our poor great, leader, Megatron. Struck down by a cowardly-"

"Spare me your nauseating theatrics, you scavenging opportunist! I still function!" Starscream did a double take and spotted that his leader's body, though even more damaged than before, still had signs of life, particularly the glaring optics that still haven't gone out.

Starscream kept his disappointment inwards and said, "Your ability to defy fatality is a constant…amazement."

Megatron growled and gave the dismembered jetpack parasite another stomp. "I wouldn't be in such a bad state if you had been here to deal with this pest."

"And tarnish your honor by slaying your foe for you?" asked Starscream, sarcasm appearing in his voice.

"If you want to make yourself useful for once, perhaps you can start by extracting a believable answer from our 'reluctant assassin'," snapped Megatron.

Starscream turned towards Dead End, who had both of his arms removed and had most of the armor scraped off of his back. Starscream didn't dislike Dead End any more than any other Decepticon (which didn't say too much for Dead End), but willing or not, he had bungled an opening for him to take command and he was feeling particularly inhospitable today. "So, I heard you tried to kill our leader," said Starscream as he readied his missile launcher.

"It wasn't my fault!" yelled Dead End, "That thing jumped me and took control! I couldn't stop it!"

"A true Decepticon would have been able to fight off any attempt at being hijacked," said Starscream.

"You wouldn't have lasted a nanoklik with that thing!" yelled Dead End.

"Can we dispense with the pointless blustering already?" said Flatline in his usual dead calm tone as he brought Dead End's repaired arms back, "Aren't we forgetting the larger picture of a non-Autobot assassin from an unknown faction making an attempt on our leader's life?"

Starscream looked at the assassin's remains and said, "I have to admit, it is a clever feat. Too bad it has been destroyed utterly beyond any attempt to salvage any data."

Flatline started reattaching Dead End's arms as he said, "It would have done little good if we had disable it intact. Doubtlessly, it's probably programmed to purge its own data if it senses its lifeforce irreversibly ebbing."

Megatron glared and snarled, "Why are you fixing that traitor? Can you not see I am the one in need of repairs?"

"Megatron…I'm afraid I've done all I can for you," said Flatline, "The assassin has managed to shoot key circuit points in your transition system and your self-repair system. Any repairs I can implement now are entirely superficial. The only way to fully recover is scan a vehicle mode and reboot your systems entirely. After which, your body should be able to recover on its own and allow you to resume a Cybertronian form after a few decacycles."

"Decacycles?!" yelled Megatron, "You expect me to disguise myself as one of those disgusting human's machines for decacyles?"

"Better than being completely unable to transform for all of eternity," replied Flatline.

Megatron growled before saying, "Fine, I suppose I can wear a new vehicle mode for a limited time, assuming the Earthlings can produce an aircraft worthy enough of containing my awesome power."

"Er, zere is a problem with zat," said Scalpel who was safely perched on Flatline's shoulder, "Ze flight capacitors vere also severely damaged. It vill take quite some time for zem to reset and for ze time beink, you shall have to assume a land-based form." He didn't have the circuitry to tell Megatron the flight capacitors had been offline for many months now, having valued his life too much.

"**WHHHAAAAAAAAAAAATT?!**" roared Megatron, causing the Decepticons to step several steps back and Dead End to cower. It was fortunate that Megatron's new fusion cannon had been removed for repairs or they would have probably had to flee for their lives.

However, Starscream couldn't resist one more chance to gloat. "I told you we should have investigated this third faction. We could have prevented this incident and saved you the indignity of rolling around on the humans' roads. You could have at least prevented that by swallowing that enormous ego of yours and selecting a new vehicle mode sooner," he quipped, "It was your pride that made you such an open target and now you've paid the price." Dead End, Flatline, and Scalpel stared at Starscream in morbid fascination, shocked by Starscream being so openly critical with Megatron which will surely cost him his Spark.

"You were right."

Not even Starscream was prepared to hear that. The smug look was promptly wiped off his face by one of utter astonishment. "What did you say?" he asked.

"You were right," growled Megatron, his anger cooled but subtly present, "I have allowed these miscreants too much freedom to act. But they have made a dreadful mistake today. They sent an assassin who failed to finish the job. Now they shall face a wrath unlike any they have ever seen. I will stalk them in turn and I shall not rest until everyone last bit of life is crushed out of them. They shall dread hearing the name 'Megatron' for what little remains of their retched lives."

"Very impressive, Lord Megatron," said Starscream, showing very little sarcasm, "But how do you intend to find this menace?"

"You have said they have been most active in a particular area, have you not?" snapped Megatron, "That is the first place I'll go. Even if there is only one agent there, I shall tear them apart limb by limb."

"And what if they are based elsewhere?" asked Starscream.

"That would be his job to find out where," said Megatron, pointing at Dead End.

"Me?" yelped Dead End.

"Your weakness of will allowed this assassin to get close to me," snarled Megatron, "The only way you can redeem yourself now is to sniff out wherever else this enemy may be hiding. I suggest you get started on it soon or should I have the good Doctor find a more practical use for your parts?"

Being threatened to be dismembered by Megatron was a scary enough threat. But the threat of having Scalpel do it was more than enough motivation for Dead End. It was a good thing Flatline had finished reattaching his arms, allowing him to jump up, shift to a somewhat battered sports car mode, and zoom off at high speed.

"Your ingenuity is a great source of inspiration," remarked Starscream.

Megatron turned to Starscream and snapped, "I have no need of your sycophancy. What I need is Soundwave back and it is your mission to locate him. If he is within this enemy's captivity, it is your objective to liberate him."

While he would have preferred Megatron offline and an open position for the Decepticon throne, Starscream had to admit that a proactive Megatron was a welcome relief to the way he had been complaining about his repairs for the last few months. Starscream bowed and said, "As you command, Lord Megatron." With a spring, he shifted into jet mode and flew off.

Megatron turned to Flatline and said, "Now about a new vehicle mode, I assume you already have a few selections available."

"I have collected possible sources in the event you should change your mind," said Flatline, using his holographic projector to show different models of cars and trucks. "I realize that these may lack a warrior's nobility, but I can procure some military vehicles scans which should be more-"

"Wait," said Megatron abruptly, "Go back." Flatline slowly played back some of the vehicles before Megatron said "Stop."

Flatline looked at the vehicle projection that Megatron had indicated. "Er, that one, sir?" he asked hesitatingly.

"Yes…" said Megatron in a sinister growl.

"An interestink choice, but zat vehicle is not considered high-grade even by human standards," said Scalpel, "Perhaps a terrestrial tank move vill be-"

"If it's good enough for the Autobots, it's good enough for me!" snarled Megatron, "Besides, this may allow a bit of insight as to how they operate on terrestrial wheels."

…

Unfortunately for NEST, the assassin drone didn't provide as many answers as they had hoped. It seemed it had been programed to purge its databanks if it were about to go offline. Studying its powerlinx interface might be useful, but it didn't provide any clues as to where this creature had come from or who had sent it. Therefore, NEST's technicians, including Wheeljack, Ratchet, and Brains, were focusing on setting up the supercomputer in order to figure out if there's any data inside that could provide an answer.

Aelita, meanwhile, decided she needed to rest and contemplate just what has been going on. She was in the mess hall, nursing an iced tea. She half-expected the coffee machine to be a Transformer too, but thankfully it wasn't. She wasn't sure if she could handle any more surprises.

She had been reading over her father's will. It wasn't an overly elaborate one, namely naming her and her mother (if she was still alive) the sole proprietor of all Waldo Schaeffer's worldly possessions in the event of his disappearance or confirmed death. She would have expected something more from her father. This barely even took up a third of the page. Weren't legal documents supposed to be much longer than this?

She heard a whirring sound before she looked up to see Wheelie standing on the table. "What do you want?" she asked.

"Mostly ta see if you're feeling alright," said Wheelie, "I mean, bein' nearly trampled can be a bad shock."

"I'm mostly trying to figure out why evil alien robots are really after my father's computer," said Aelita.

"Eh, big evil robots are hard to figure out," said Wheelie as he picked up the lemon wedge from Aelita's tea, "I mean, most of them are just out to take over the universe and they'd rather not have to fiddle around with sneakin' around and such. They'd rather just squish anyone that gets in their way." He squeezed the lemon wedge to make a point, causing several drops of lemon juice to spray onto the table, especially on the will.

"Wheelie!" yelled Aelita, "You've gotten lemon juice all over my father's will!"

"Hey, it'll come right off," said Wheelie, "It's not like the ink's runnin'."

Aelita looked and the will and was annoyed to see that the ink did look like it was running… Wait, that's not the same ink as on the rest of the will. The lemon juice mainly fell on the blank part and there were faint traces of ink where there wasn't before. "Could it really be?" asked Aelita before leaning forward and breathing on the paper. The traces of ink became more visible, forming actual letters. "Of course, invisible ink, I should have known my father wouldn't have left a short will on purpose," said Aelita. She quickly ran into the kitchenette and grabbed another lemon wedge. She ran back and started squeezing more lemon juice onto the paper and rubbing it over. As the ink traces became more visible, she breathed on them to make them fully legible.

After about a minute of rubbing and breathing, a full message appeared:

_"My dearest Aelita,_

_If you are reading this, I congratulate you for being clever enough to find this hidden message. Sadly, this will also mean I am gone for good, hopefully having taking my enemy down with me. I wish I and your mother could be with you, but it would seem that it not to be. I would hope that you are living in peace and happiness, but I fear that may not last. I have never told you this, but I have worked for a secret organization called Sector 7 that deals with the location and classification of non-biological extraterrestrials or giant robots from space if you want to be more vernacular. There is a chance that they may have revealed themselves already by the time you are reading this. I do not know their intents with our Earth, but I know at least one will be attempting to claim you and the supercomputer. I would hope that you would have allies of your own, but there is another you can turn to. There is an ancient guardian on Malta who will know more about the being who has broken up our family. If you can wake him, he may be able to protect you from whatever else may come for you. Aelita, you are more precious than you can imagine. Be strong, be wise, be brave, and be careful. We will meet again, hopefully after you lived a long life._

_Your most devoted father,_

_Waldo Schaffer"_

Aelita's eyes were stinging with tears and it had nothing to do with the lemon juice. Her father had left her a final message after all. He might be gone beyond recovery, but she knew he left something more personal than his worldly possessions.

Wheelie looked at the message and said, "Malta? Ya know, I think heard a rumor about a sleeper there. Don't think he's a Seeker or the Cons woulda known."

Aelita turned to him and asked, "Do you really think he could help us?"

Wheelie shrugged and said, "If there's anything I've learned on Earth, it's that anything's possible. Couldn't hurt to try at any rate."

Aelita nodded and said, "I'm going to tell the others. Hopefully, we can Malta as soon as possible. I'm certainly not going to wait around here for another robot monster to roll in." She picked up the paper and ran out of the mess hall.

Wheelie picked up the lemon wedge and said to himself, "Well, goin' off on another globe-spannin' adventure again. Hope this one won't have as much strafin' as the last one." Curious, he decided to see if he could see what humans enjoyed so much about this fruit and placed his tongue on it. He immediately threw the lemon away and spat in disgust. "Bleh, how can humans like anything like that? I gotta get my taste receptors cleaned out!"

* * *

At long, long last, a new chapter is up. I would have done this months ago, but I was caught up with other stories but it's allowed me to work on a bit of rewriting.

Anyways, we have the introduction of several characters we know from the series: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Director Mearings. I felt that Mearings would be a lot better to deal with than Galloway even if it involves a bit of...awkwardness around Simmons. Dead End hasn't appeared in any of the films, but I figure he's a usable character for this story. Incidentally, his appearance is based on his Legends toy, the only one that's unique to him. The parasitic backhugger is based off of Strapwing, one of my characters.

For the next chapter, we'll be seeing some traveling and some exposition. But don't think it's smooth sailing from here. The enemy is going to be more active now and you can bet they'll be more determined than ever. I will try my best to update again before the month is out so keep an eye out for it. Please review.


End file.
